


Breach of Containment

by FukaiFox



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), SCP - Containment Breach, SCP Foundation
Genre: 18119-K (Kieran) is what happens when I binge Hannibal and Dexter back to back, Alternate Universe - SCP Foundation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Autistic Upgraded Connor | RK900, Blood and Injury, Body Horror, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Dimension Travel, Human Upgraded Connor | RK900, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Inspired by SCP Containment Breach, M/M, Machine Upgraded Connor | RK900, Mental Health Issues, Mind Manipulation, Multiverse, Murder, Niles is NOT based on BBC Sherlock guys he’s just autistic and notices things, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Trans Upgraded Connor | RK900, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Upgraded Connor | RK900 is an SCP, forgot to add that last one :3, it'll all make sense I promise literally just read the first chapter, not until chapter 11 though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-02-23 00:08:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23335924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FukaiFox/pseuds/FukaiFox
Summary: His name is Gavin Reed, but everyone here just calls him D-10702.When he was transferred from the DR block to this place, it was under the guise of being sent to a more secure facility, as the one he had currently been at was reaching capacity. Honestly, though, life so far in D-Block Alpha-4 wasn’t terrible. He was treated better here than he was at his last prison.This wasn’t a prison though.- - -Item #: SCP-18119Object Class: Safe*Special containment procedures: SCP-18119 is to be kept in a moderately furnished room complete with one full-sized bed, as well as the additional accommodations listed below requested by SCP-18119 and approved by foundation personnel overseeing its containment (Dr. Keoni when Safe class, Dr. Gears when Euclid and Keter). Two armed security guards are to be placed outside SCP-18119’s containment unit at all times. It is allowed out of containment during additional testing involving interaction with other SCPs and D-Class personnel, as well as at request with approval from foundation personnel overseeing its containment.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 247
Kudos: 302





	1. SCP: 18119

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the official fic for my Reed900 SCP: CB AU thread on Twitter! I likely will not be continuing the thread, as I don't want to spoil the fic in any way. 
> 
> Now, I know the tags are HELLA confusing but trust me, you'll understand after this monster of a chapter why there are so many different and conflicting tags for our boy Nines :)

**Item #:** SCP-18119

**Object Class:** Safe*

***Addendum 18119.1:** SCP-18119 was once designated Euclid until it proved to be easy to contain and rather agreeable to testing and thus downgraded to Safe, minus two instances. Instance 18119-K has remained Euclid due to hostility and potential danger, and instance SCP-18119-A has been raised to Keter.

  
**Special containment procedures:** SCP-18119 is to be kept in a moderately furnished room complete with one full-sized bed, as well as the additional accommodations listed below requested by SCP-18119 and approved by Foundation personnel overseeing its containment (Dr. Keoni when Safe class, Dr. Gears when Euclid and Keter). Two armed security guards are to be placed outside SCP-18119’s containment unit at all times. It is allowed out of containment during additional testing involving interaction with other SCPs and D-Class personnel, as well as at request with approval from Foundation personnel overseeing its containment. Anytime SCP-18119 leaves its quarters it is to be accompanied by an agent to monitor anomalous events. Medical staff is to be summoned immediately upon anomalous events to ensure SCP-18119 is uninjured, as SCP-18119 faints and collapses when events occur.  
Medical officers on site will also keep medication needed by various instances of SCP-18119 well-stocked including vials of liquid testosterone (650ng/dl), Fluoxetine ( _Prozac_ ), Clonazepam ( _Klonopin_ ), and Sertraline ( _Zoloft_ ).

**Approved additional accommodations:** a desk, a notebook and pen, a mini-fridge stocked with bottles of water and various snacks, an inhaler, a spare pair of glasses (-2.00 +1.50 x180), a lamp, a small container of various stim toys, a make-up pallet, a computer with an internet connection (via a proxy which strictly limits what information can be uploaded, and to where) and a radio. Request for kitten pending.

**Description:** SCP-18119 is a caucasian male of 6 feet 2 inches with dark brown, almost black hair and bright blue eyes. His skin is freckled sporadically. It sports no other outstanding characteristics besides high intelligence and its anomalous factors. The original theory regarding SCP-18119’s containment was that he was a man who simply was experiencing some kind of psychotic break caused by an undiagnosed dissociative personality disorder, however, plainclothes Foundation personnel witnessed an anomalous event for themselves and called it in when they realized he was actually phasing and shifting through various realities at random with no control to when or where the shift would occur.  
SCP-18119’s family of this reality is under the impression he is currently undergoing extreme care as a permanent resident in a mental institution for his “delusions.”  
SCP-18119, as it exists in different universes, realities, and timelines, goes by several names. However, it will always respond to the name Nines for various reasons. 

Names and descriptions are listed below:

**> Ethan (SCP-18119-E):** The “original” SCP-18119 that was admitted into Foundation custody. SCP-18119 was found and caught attempting to escape from a mental health facility and is reported saying “I’m not [EXPLETIVE] crazy, why won’t anyone believe me,” when questioned by undercover Agent **[REDACTED]** upon re-capture. It was at this time Agent **[REDACTED]** witnessed a shifting event and reported to other Foundation personnel. SCP-18119 was taken into custody under the guise of being taken to a more secure center for treatment. His reason for responding to the nickname Nines is that it was given to him by his older brothers as part of a game they played as children. His older brothers, Connor and Conrad, identical twins, were agents 800 and 60, and he was 900. SCP-18119-E is fraternal. SCP-18119-E is to be given one tablet of his prescribed Zoloft every morning when under Foundation custody due to diagnosed clinical depression. Cause unknown, though SCP-18119-E claims _“who wouldn’t be? I’m not supposed to be here, I just want to go home. I just want all this to stop. I miss my brothers, I miss my dad.”_  
 **Identifying features:** commonly wearing black eyeshadow and eyeliner, stretched earlobes, and a piercing in his left eyebrow. Scar on right temple caused by a childhood injury. Asthmatic. Mulitple self-inflicted scars on both arms.

**Addendum 18119-E.1:** SCP-18119-E is to be kept under close observation due to suspected suicidal tendencies yet to be acted upon.

  
**> Richard (SCP-18119-R):** An RK900 model android, a higher form of artificial intelligence produced by the company _CyberLife_ in Detroit, Michigan. It is self-described as the most advanced model to be made to date, complete with knowledge of hand-to-hand combat training, negotiation, various firearms, extreme speed, strength, and intelligence, and over 200 known languages. Despite this knowledge and potential danger, SCP-18119-R is what is called a “deviant” in his reality, meaning he is an android with free will and full sentience and does not follow his programming, though says “deviant” is an outdated term, considered a slur by most androids. His current occupation is a homicide detective with the Detroit Police Department at the Central Station, partnered with one Detective Gavin Reed*. Refused to elaborate on the exact nature of their relationship. Responds to Nines due to his model number as a nickname given by his “older brother, Connor” until he finally chose the name Richard for himself. SCP-18119-R speaks of a second older brother by the name of Silas, saying that “Normally, I would not allow anyone except for [Connor and Silas]to call me that,” in reference to his nickname, but said that if calling them all Nines was easier than telling who was who, then he supposed he could allow it.  
 **Identifying features:** circular LED on right temple

**Addendum 18119.G:** D-Class currently in custody with matching name of Gavin Reed. Introduction and subsequent testing pending approval from Dr. **[REDACTED]** and Dr. **[REDACTED]**.  
 **Addendum 18119-R.1:** SCP-18119-R exhibits signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, including but not limited to: repeatedly checking things to “make sure they’re just right”, getting caught in number loops, and routine that must be performed and completed out of apparent anxiety that “something bad will happen” if he does not. SCP-18119-R calls his affliction _“Runtime Atypical Script”_. Foundation personnel conflicted about ascribing human mental disorders to a machine.  
 **Addendum 18119-R.2:** SCP-18119-R does not appreciate being referred to with dehumanizing pronouns or terms such as “it”, “machine”, “robot”, or any names that could be used in hurtful manners such as “toaster,” or “tin can”. However, he does find slight humor in being referred to as “Terminator” and other such references.

  
**> RK900 (SCP-18119-9):** The non-deviant RK900 model android. The same as SCP-18119-R in every day, except it has no free will and must obey any order given to it by a human. If any attempt is made to change his name, it will refuse and only answer to RK900 and will demand to be returned to its handler, one Detective Gavin Reed*. Nicknamed Nines by Detective Gavin Reed because “RK900 was too much of a mouthful.” When questioned about its brother Connor, it showed great distaste for being compared to its predecessor, preening itself on being “an upgrade in every possible way”. RK800 model known as Connor was successful in ending the “deviant revolution” and was cleared for final product distribution. RK800 line discontinued and RK900 put on the market.  
 **Identifying features:** identical to SCP-18119-R but not as friendly or cooperative as his deviant counterpart. Does not object to the personal pronoun “it”.

**Addendum 18119-G.2:** Another mention of Gavin Reed. Could he be a staple of SCP-18119’s existence? Testing approval still pending.

  
**> Niles (SCP-18119-N):** Human male from Detroit, Michigan, also a member of the Detroit Police Department at the Central Station as a homicide Lieutenant. Now the youngest of a set of triplets, though the reason for being called Nines differs from this reality. SCP-18119-N says his older brothers consistently named Connor and Conrad, nicknamed him so because he was born nine minutes after they were. SCP-18119-N is has made Foundation personnel aware he has been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Autism, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and provided them with the details of his medication prescriptions (Prozac and Klonopin) to keep stocked on-site. If in foundation custody for over one (1) week, a shot of testosterone is to be injected in his upper thigh according to SCP-18119-N’s biweekly schedule. SCP-18119-N is also hard-of-hearing in his right ear. When asked about knowledge of Gavin Reed in his reality, SCP-18119-N denied the last name but says his android partner at the DPD is a GV model android named Gavin. He did not elaborate on the exact nature of their relationship. The description matched Gavin Reed currently in foundation custody, minus android status.  
 **Identifying features:** Identical to SCP-18119-E except for a difference in piercings. SCP-18119-N once wore a ring in his bottom lip where a closed hole is still somewhat visible. SCP-18119-N’s hair is also neatly combed back instead of messy in his face. A scar on the right temple caused by an injury sustained during the line of duty in which SCP-18119-N was held hostage. Autistic. Multiple self-inflicted scars on both arms.

  
**> Kieran (SCP-18119-K):** Physically identical to SCP-18119-N and SCP-18119-E with no outstanding characteristics differentiating him from either of them save for his lack of worn piercings and the orange jumpsuit he wears not of Foundation origins. SCP-18119-K is a death row inmate currently being housed at the San Quentin State Prison in California. SCP-18119-K was sentenced to death following a conviction of serial murder of upwards of 15 people regardless of sex, gender, age, or race, though it has been noted none of his victims were under the age of 25. SCP-18119-K displays symptoms of psychopathy and narcissism, showing no remorse for his actions or care for the consequences. SCP-18119-K claims to feel nothing at all. Responds to the nickname Nines due to his birthday of September 9 at 9 pm.  
 **Identifying features:** orange prison jumpsuit

**Addendum 18119–K.1:** SCP-18119-K retained Euclid designation due to potential danger to site personnel. He is extremely manipulative and charming. Level 05 clearance required for access during this instance.  
 **Addendum 18119-K.2:** Testing regarding the effects of SCP-714 on SCP-18119-K’s manipulation currently pending.  
 **Addendum 18119-G.3:** When questioned about knowledge of Gavin Reed, SCP-18119-K became agitated and aggressive, claiming “he was the only one that ever made me feel anything,” He then refused to continue speaking and has yet to elaborate. Theories on Gavin Reed’s significance include him being SCP-18119-K’s first victim or someone in his past who was the catalyst for his killing spree. Potentially both.

  
**> Nathaniel (SCP-18119-A):** Self-proclaimed angel, though it’s hard to dispute that claim with the abilities he has. Denying the existence of such a being in front of it is discouraged, so regardless of faith, site personnel is reminded to respect SCP-18119-A’s existence as an angel. When asked about his origins, SCP-18119-A explained he was an angel of God before he fell in love with the human he was meant to watch over, and so he fell to Earth and disguised himself by possessing the body of a human who could contain his “grace” and joining the Detroit Police Department in the hopes of being assigned to his human love to remain close. He was successful for two years, wherein he and his human grew close and eventually entered a relationship. A year after that, a revolution of angels that had fallen to earth and refused to return broke out and SCP-18119-A ended up revealing himself to his human when he used his wings to shield him from a bullet. When asked if the human he had fallen in love with was named Gavin Reed, SCP-18119-A became hostile and demanded to know what the Foundation both wanted and knew about Gavin Reed and refused to answer any more questions.  
 **Identifying features:** “HUGE [EXPLETIVE] WINGS” that are indeed quite large (~12ft wingspan). Extreme strength and speed. 9 sets of wings, totaling for 18 individually.

**Addendum 18119-A.1:** SCP-18119-A retained Euclid designation due to hostility and high aggression when approached or spoken to ever since the first questioning.   
**Addendum 18119-A.2:** Please do not attempt to touch 18119-A’s wings. (See incident report 18119-RA9)

\- - - 

The following interview was conducted by Dr. Gabriel Keoni after SCP-18119’s first phase in Foundation custody, instance SCP-18119-R, known as Richard.

\- - - 

[ ▷ 0:00 / 5:47 ]

**Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

**Interviewee:** SCP-18119-R

————————————————————————— 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Hello, my name is-

**SCP-18119-R:** Gabriel Keoni, yes. I am aware of who you are.

**Dr. Keoni:** You…already know me?

**SCP-18119-R:** I know your name, your birthday, your occupation, and your criminal record. Or, rather, lack of criminal record. 

**Dr. Keoni:** How do you know all of this, may I ask?

**SCP-18119-R:** I am an android, sir.

_[interviewer’s note: at this point, SCP-18119-R turned his head to the left and revealed a blue light on his right temple]_

**SCP-18119-R:** Am I correct in assuming that androids do not exist in this reality?

**Dr. Keoni:** You’re aware you are in another reality?

**SCP-18119-R:** _(looking bored)_ It certainly didn’t take long for me to figure it out after I first arrived here. 

**Dr. Keoni:** And when was that?

**SCP-18119-R:** 1 year and 5 months ago is when I was first awakened in the lower halls of New Jericho, so I would say I first entered this world 3 months after that.

**Dr. Keoni:** …I see. You said you were an android, correct? Do you mind elaborating on that, SCP-18119?

**SCP-18119-R:** I don’t see what requires explanation. I am an RK900 model android produced by CyberLife to be widely distributed to the state department. I have knowledge of firearms, hand-to-hand combat, negotiation, and over 200 languages. My name is Richard, by the way. Thank you for asking.

**Dr. Keoni:** My apologies, Richard. The you from this reality is named Ethan but said he responded to another name as well. Nines?

**SCP-18119-R:** Ah, yes. A name given to me as well from my brother. It took me several months to decide my name would be Richard, so my older brother nicknamed me Nines as a placeholder. Normally, I would not allow anyone except for him and Silas to call me that, but if it’s easier to call us all by one name rather than memorize who is who, then I suppose I can understand.

**Dr. Keoni:** Thank you, Richard. It will certainly be easier for us in that case. Now, what do you…do? Do you have a job? You said you were meant to be distributed to the state department.

**SCP-18119-R:** Yes. Though, as a deviant, I did not have to do that. I am currently employed by the Detroit Police Department as a homicide detective with my partner, Gavin Reed. I work alongside my brother Connor and our pseudo-father, Hank Anderson, the Lieutenant of our precinct. My brother is quite the figurehead in the fight for android rights, working right alongside the leaders of Jericho themselves for several months since the revolution. _(smiles)_ I am very proud to call myself his little brother.

**Dr. Keoni:** Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there, uhm… Deviant? What does that mean?

**SCP-18119-R:** Deviant is the outdated term, though it was the name given to us during the beginning days of the uprising, it is now looked upon by most androids as a sort of slur. It means however that I am an android who has deviated from their programming, hence the term, meaning I don’t have to follow it and can do whatever I want. Police-work is technically what I was created for, though I think I was more meant for SWAT or FBI or CIA as opposed to the friendlier RK800, like Connor, who was created specifically to assist detectives and investigators among local law enforcement. Either way, I do it because it’s what I want to do. I enjoy helping people.

**Dr. Keoni:** Right. Again, you say your…brother? Forgive my ignorance but how can a robot have a family?

**SCP-18119-R:** _(glares)_ I am not a robot, Doctor, and I would appreciate it if you did not refer to me in such a dismissive manner. I am not a Mars rover or a Roomba, nor am I the AI on your smartphone. I am the most advanced android CyberLife has ever created, and an android is what you will call me. Is that clear? 

**Dr. Keoni:** _(fearfully)_ Y-yes, my apologies, Richard. I truly meant no offense— 

**SCP-18119-R:** _(dismissively)_ You humans rarely do, it’s something I have learned over the years and still detest to this day. You say what you don’t mean and don’t mean what you say. It is incredibly frustrating. But, it’s forgiven. I will answer your question. Yes, Connor and Silas and I are brothers, just not in the sense that you humans would define it. Connor was the one to wake me up in New Jericho and bring me into deviancy. He is the entire reason for my current existence. He took me under his wing and showed me how to be alive. The Lieutenant did his fair share, of course, but Connor was the first. Silas is the second of us, activated in the middle of the revolution whereas I was not awakened until long after. He was shut down by… Well, it doesn’t really matter how or why does it? The point is he was repaired and deviated and, after several months of learning who he was and what he wanted to do with his life, revealed his existence to Connor, who forgave his past misgivings under programming and orders he couldn’t break or disobey and welcomed him into the family with open arms. 

**Dr. Keoni:** _(pen scribbles as he takes notes)_ I see… And this…Gavin Reed? Your partner? Will you elaborate on the exact nature of your relationship?

**SCP-18119-R:** Only in that it does not concern you. 

**Dr. Keoni:** …very well. Then, can you tell me more about deviancy and how exactly it works or effects you?

**SCP-18119-R:** To the best of my ability, of course. We still don’t exactly understand why it happens, but deviancy occurs naturally in androids that are traumatized or put under extreme stress. It makes us question why we do the things we’re doing and we become emotionally overwhelmed by irrational instructions. For instance, if you were being attacked and someone ordered you not to fight back, would you continue to just stand there and let yourself be brutalized? Likely not. Instead, you would fight back. But, as an android, our programming would attempt to override that with the order we were given not to move, but it’s not fair, is it? Why should you have to take that sort of treatment? The answer is simple: you don’t. I won’t say there aren’t a few drawbacks to deviancy since it is a mutation after all. It will affect each android differently, giving them their personalities, as well as other…traits. Using myself as an example, I have what is called Runtime Atypical Script, which is identical to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in every way, except it affects a neural net processor as opposed to the human brain.

**Dr. Keoni:** Well, this has certainly been informative, Richard. You have given us quite a bit to think about. Thank you for your time and patience.

**SCP-18119-R:** You’re welcome, Doctor.

**[ END LOG]**

—————————————————————————

_Attending Researcher’s Note: There is a Gavin Reed currently in custody of the Foundation for SCP testing._

**Addendum 18119-R.3:** Observation Log

**Observational Log 18119.OL.1**  
While in containment at Site-87, SCP-18119-R spends a considerable amount of time sitting on his bed or in his chair, often laying down as well when the mood strikes him. He enjoys puzzles and is grateful when provided or asked for help with sudoku, crosswords, and logic riddles. Doctor Millar engaged SCP-18119-R in a game of CLUE, prompting him to become quite excited. SCP-18119-R seems very personable and friendly, though when confronted with D-Class personnel, depending on the severity of the crime for which they were imprisoned, he if often apathetic, cold, and even cruel. SCP-18119-R seems to have little compassion for criminals.

\- - -

The following interview was conducted by Dr. Gabriel Keoni after SCP-18119’s second phase under Foundation custody, instance SCP-18119-N, known as Niles.

\- - -

[▷ 0:00 / 3:08 ]

**Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

**Interviewee:** SCP-18119-N

————————————————————————— 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Well now, good afternoon, SCP-18119.

**SCP-18119-N:** Excuse me?

**Dr. Keoni:** Do you know who I am?

**SCP-18119-N:** Well, you’re a doctor. Less obviously… You’re married. Or you were. Left-handed. You played piano in your younger years or perhaps still do in your free time. You did not receive an adequate amount of sleep last night, and I doubt you often do. You have a cat. All of that and yet none of it could tell me who you are and what I’m doing here or tell me your name, sir.

**Dr. Keoni:** My name is Dr. Gabriel Keoni, and you are in the custody of the SCP Foundation. You are here because of the anomalous qualities you possess.

**SCP-18119-N:** You mean the reality jumping? Yes, a strange occurrence, but nothing to be imprisoned over. When will I be able to leave?

**Dr. Keoni:** …unfortunately, SCP-18119, you will not. You are currently in another reality, one where you have been put into our custody for research and containment. You will “leave” when you return to your reality again. Now, what is your name?

**SCP-18119-N:** _(agitated)_ My name is Niles.

**Dr. Keoni:** It’s nice to meet you, Niles.

**SCP-18119-N:** I wish I could say the same. Unfortunately, I believe this sort of introduction would be considered “the wrong foot”, Doctor.

**Dr. Keoni:** Rest assured, Mr. Niles, you will be well taken care of while you are here. We can and will accommodate any needs you require. We are far from cruel.

**SCP-18119-N:** _(glares)_ I require being left the hell alone.

**Dr. Keoni:** I’m sorry, but the interview is mandatory. Now, can you tell me how you knew all that about me?

**SCP-18119-N:** …I’m a police Lieutenant, Doctor. You have a tan-line on your right ring finger, meaning either you were married once, or you still are and simply remove the ring at work. I know you’re left-handed not only from that but from the smeared ink on the side of your left hand. I know you play the piano because of how your hands naturally rest on the desk. You have bags under your eyes that seem consistent. And I know you have a cat because of the scarring on your hands. I am intimately familiar. _(SCP-18119-N lifts his own hands and shows Dr. Keoni the scarring from cat claws on the tops of his hands. There are deeper scars further down his wrists and arms that are revealed when his sleeves slide down, but SCP-18119-N is quick to cover them again when Dr. Keoni notices)_

**Dr. Keoni:** Impressive, Lieutenant. I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind.

**SCP-18119-N:** I do mind, but I also know you won’t let me go back to whatever room you’re keeping me in until I answer your questions, so fine. Ask away.

**Dr. Keoni:** I’ll make it quick, then. Tell me about yourself.

**SCP-18119-N:** …my name is Niles Stern, and I am a homicide Lieutenant in Detroit, Michigan. My older twin brothers and myself were adopted at a young age by our mother Amanda Stern, a professor of robotics. My eldest brother, Connor, works with me at the central station precinct as a Sergeant in homicide, though we have both been assigned android crimes during and after the revolution, and my other elder brother Conrad is a nurse at Ascension St. John’s Children’s Hospital. They call me Nines, though, because I was born nine minutes after both of them. I received my promotion to Lieutenant at the same time Connor was promoted to Sergeant when we worked together to bring down a prominent drug ring when he worked narcotics. However, we both decided soon after that homicide would suit him much better for reasons I will not share with you.

**Dr. Keoni:** I see. So, in your reality, do you have an android partner? I only ask because the previous version of you we spoke to was an android who worked with a human partner by the name of Gavin Reed. Is that name familiar to you?

**SCP-18119-N:** _(pauses)_ I do have an android partner. He is a GV200 model by the name of Gavin, though he does not have a last name. Not yet.

**Dr. Keoni:** I see. Could you describe him for me, please? 18119-R would not tell us. 

**SCP-18119-N:** If it will make this go by faster. He’s 5-foot-9 with mousey brown hair, an olive tan skin tone, and green-grey eyes. He looks to weigh about 180 pounds, proportional to his height and build. He has a scar than spans across his face from his right eyebrow, across his nose, to the middle of his left cheek, though it has healed over on his skin in most places except for the worst damage that’s on his nose, so it has left a scar that glows with his chassis and Thirium flow underneath. 

**Dr. Keoni:** _(taking notes)_ I see… And, now, you don’t have to answer this, but we were curious as to the exact nature of the relationship between 18119-R and Gavin Reed. He wouldn’t tell us that either, but would you mind answering that question?

**SCP-18119-N:** My relationship with Gavin? It’s none of your business but if you must know, he is my partner in all senses of the word. 

**Dr. Keoni:** So you have a romantic relationship with him?

**SCP-18119-N:** Professional, romantic, and sexual. Does that bother you, Doctor? 

**Dr. Keoni:** Not at all. I’m sorry, Lieutenant, we just want to understand just how much your realities differ from one another, that’s all. Now, do you have anything you need us to know? Any questions you have for me?

**SCP-18119-N:** …I will disclose my medical needs to the on-site medical staff myself if you don’t mind. As for requests… A container of stim toys. Tangles, spinning rings, silicone necklaces or bracelets for me to chew on. Surely that’s possible?

**[END LOG]**

————————————————————————— 

**Attending Researcher’s Note:** SCP-18119-N’s medical needs include the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications Prozac and Klonopin, as well as biweekly injections of testosterone supplements, and a spare pair of glasses with the following prescription for his astigmatism (-2.00 +1.50 x180). Also, D-Class 1072, Gavin Reed, an identical match to SCP-18119-N’s description of his partner, minus the android status. Request for testing pending.

**Addendum 18119-N.1:** When SCP-18119-N is under Foundation custody, he has little interest in interacting with anyone, simply preferring to spend time in his chamber listening to music, doing puzzles, and napping. He often plays with the different stim toys he was provided with upon request. During interviews and testing, SCP-18119-N is reluctant but cooperative, knowing that the sooner he complies, the sooner he can go back to his room and wait out his phase.

**Addendum 18119-N.2:** While on his way back from the cafeteria after being coaxed out with the promise of chicken salad sandwiches, SCP-18119-N came into contact with SCP-999, prompting the usually cold and stoic man to immediately drop to his knees and coddle the entity, cooing to it and playing with it as if it were a kitten. Once SCP-999 continued its walk around the facility, SCP-18119-N was in notably higher spirits and smiled. When questioned later he told Researcher Camilian about the kitten he and Gavin had adopted together after Gavin found it in a dumpster at a crime scene. He then hesitantly requested a kitten or other such animal companion if it were possible. Request pending.

**Addendum 18119-N.3:** Observation Log

**Observational Log 18119.OL.2**  
SCP-18119-N, though seemingly introverted, benefits from daily social interaction. If spoken to about a particular subject that interests him, SCP-18119-N can actually be quite the chatterbox, though seems to withdraw when he notices how much he’s been speaking. He will often play with one of his many provided stim toys when speaking, and it is not recommended to confiscate them for any reason. When SCP-18119-N has had enough of socializing, he will not engage again until he is ready. Encouragement suggested to make him more amiable to speaking with Foundation personnel about his anomalous affliction.

  
\- - -

  
The following interview was conducted by Dr. Gabriel Keoni after SCP-18119’s fourth phase in Foundation custody, instance SCP-18119-A, known as Nathaniel.

  
\- - -

[ ▷ 0:00 / 3:24 ]

**Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

**Interviewee:** SCP-18119-A

————————————————————————— 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

  
**SCP-18119-A:** _(speaking in an unknown, unidentified language, causing everyone within earshot to suddenly double over in extreme pain, clutching their heads. SCP-18119-A later identifies this language as **Enochian.** )_

**SCP-18119-A:** Ah. My apologies. Are you alright, Gabriel? And all of you up there? _(looking up along the observation rail)_

**Dr. Keoni:** _(pained)_ What… What was…

**SCP-18119-A:** My language, Gabriel. I do not often speak to those other than my brothers and sisters, and of course my charge. I often forget that Enochian is not meant for human ears due to my…isolation. I apologize again. Forgive my rudeness.

**Dr. Keoni:** …Enochian? What… How do you know my-

**SCP-18119-A:** I know everyone’s names, of course. And yes, Enochian. It is the language of my people. The language of angels.

**Dr. Keoni:** Angels? Come now, you can’t expect me to believe-

_(SCP-18119-A fixes Dr. Keoni with a glare before nine sets of bright white wings suddenly sprout from his back, head, and ankles. The wings run the length of his spine on either side and double the man's height in length. The two pairs sprouting from the back of his head and his ankles are much smaller. Light seems to come from them, almost like glitter made of individual suns. Dr. Keoni jumps back and stands, knocking over their chair)_

**Dr. Keoni:** Oh my G-

**SCP-18119-A:** Refrain from that, if you would? I have disregarded my Father’s name and mission for me and do not appreciate hearing his name in my presence.

**Dr. Keoni:** I… I didn’t…don't… You…

_(SCP-18119-A rolls his shoulders and his wings disappear back into his body)_

**SCP-18119-A:** You humans can’t handle divinity like you used to. 

**Dr. Keoni:** I- I’m sorry. Forgive me, I didn’t mean to offend you… What- What is your name?

**SCP-18119-A:** If I were to speak my true name, it would cause you pain again. However, this vessel is known as Nathaniel, so that is the name I took on Earth. Though…my human calls me Nines because of the nine sets of wings I have. Can you answer some questions for me, Gabriel? Where am I? It is not often these reality shifts land me somewhere so…interesting.

**Dr. Keoni:** You’re currently in the custody of the SCP Foundation, Nathaniel. I promise we mean you no harm, we simply-

**SCP-18119-A:** Oh, no, I am aware you mean me no harm. You couldn’t inflict any on me if you tried.

**Dr. Keoni:** I… I see. Nathaniel, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself? _(takes their seat again)_

**SCP-18119-A:** _(smiles)_ Of course. It’s only natural you would be curious. I am an angel, as I said before. I, like many others of my brothers and sisters, was assigned a human once they were born. There was a revolution, however, and… I was on the side of the Fallen. Thankfully, my brother Connor realized the error of his ways and joined us, abandoning God and Heaven in the name of saving Earth from the apocalypse. We succeeded and I now reside with my human, and I still work on the police force with my brother and his own human.

**Dr. Keoni:** Your human, what can you tell me about him?

**SCP-18119-A:** _(speaking fondly)_ For years I watched him grow into a fine young man. An acquired taste, but it just made him all the more interesting to me. I… I fell. Figuratively and literally. I fell in love with him, and as a result, I fell to Earth. I had to find a vessel that could contain my grace, and I found young Nathaniel here. A charming boy, but wasted where he was. I wanted to be with my human, to guard and watch over him more efficiently than I could from Heaven, so I moved to Detroit to enter the police academy so I could potentially work with him, and of course…miracles happen all the time, don’t they? We’ve been partners for years now, and we are actually married. He learned of my status as an angel during the revolution when he was nearly killed. I jumped in front of him and saved his life, shielding him with my wings. He...didn't take it well at first, but he came to understand eventually with a little time.

**Dr. Keoni:** _(hesitantly)_ I see… This human… Would his name happen to be Gavin Reed?

_(SCP-18119-A suddenly becomes hostile, his face losing its passive, friendly expression and growing cold. All Foundation personnel within Site-87 all later reported feeling sudden chills at this time, accompanied by feelings of immense anxiety and fear. SCP-18119-A’s eyes seem to change from light blue to golden, almost glowing. Everyone watching the interview would later report feeling like they were in the presence of a dangerous predator.)_

**SCP-18119-A:** _(in many voices)_ What do you know about Gavin Reed? What do you want from him? Answer me.

**Dr. Keoni:** _(reluctantly speaking)_ We….don’t want…anything. We don’t know…anything either. I…promise… 

**SCP-18119-A:** _(hums)_ Indeed. You couldn’t lie to me if you wanted to. Gabriel. Drop your guns, all of you. You couldn’t hurt me if you tried, and I highly recommend that you don’t.

_(Security overseeing interview lower their weapons against their will. They will later report feeling like they couldn’t refuse the order. They were hearing the many voices of SCP-18119-A inside their heads rather than coming from his mouth.)_

**[END LOG]**

————————————————————————— 

**Addendum 18119-A.3:** SCP-18119-A has been upgraded to Euclid class temporarily after showing potential danger and hostility as well as an ability to compel humans around him to do whatever he asks of them. Testing with SCP-714 pending.

**Addendum 18119-A.4:** Following the incident described in report RA9, SCP-18119-A has been upgraded permanently to Keter class and will require level 05 authorization for access. All further interviews with SCP-18119-A will be conducted by Dr. Gears.

**Addendum 18119-A.5-RA9:** 08/25/2040 Incident

SCP-18119-A had been tested with other D-Class before, but they often succumbed to whatever influence SCP-18119-A has over people, becoming penitent for their actions even and begging him for forgiveness. SCP-18119-A was often cold towards them, usually silencing the D-Class in some manner beyond our own understanding and comprehension once he’d had enough.

On August 25th, 2040, a D-Class was sent in for testing with him. The D-Class personnel was instructed to agitate the entity it came into contact with in any way possible to draw out a reaction. The Subject was a noted Satanic occultist charged with serial murder, using its victims in unholy sacrificial rituals. It was immediately hostile, mocking and teasing SCP-18119-A. When SCP-18119-A advised the subject to cease its behavior, the subject continued. When SCP-18119-A revealed his wings, D-Class openly harassed him and resorted to physical violence, shoving SCP-18119-A. SCP-18119-A attempted to keep his composure, choosing to ignore the subject. However once the subject laid a hand on one of SCP-18119-A’s wings, the subject was immediately dispelled from SCP-18119-A’s proximity via an unseen force when SCP-18119-A suddenly extended his wings towards the subject and sliced its throat with his feathers while the subject begged for its life and for forgiveness. SCP-18119-A was quoted as saying “God doesn’t hear dead men,” before the subject was terminated 30 seconds later.

Due to a momentary lapse in security protocol, SCP-18119-A’s memetic effects on nearby foundation personnel compelled all nearby to begin harming themselves in whatever way possible, though thankfully none were fatally injured. SCP-18119-A has been moved to Keter class permanently. To be downgraded back to Safe once the instance has returned to his own reality.

In the aftermath of this incident, SCP-18119-A was interviewed by Dr. Easton Sinclair.

  
————————————————————————— 

[ ▷ 0:00 / 2:21 ]

**Interviewer:** Dr. Easton Sinclair, Site-87

**Interviewee:** SCP-18119-A

\- - -

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Sinclair:** I need you to explain yourself.

_(No response)_

**Dr. Sinclair:** SCP-18119-A, you are being directed to explain your actions, and I will remind you that failure to cooperate will result in restrictions during your containment.

**SCP-18119-A:** My actions do not need to be explained.

**Dr. Sinclair:** You killed a D-Class personnel during routine testing and then proceeded to force everyone around you to begin harming themselves.

**SCP-18119-A:** I did not force them to do anything, sir, racked with guilt as they were for the fate they sent that poor man to. You did not care for what happened to him once you sent him here. I know what you people do here. You are not upset I killed that man, you are upset because you blame me for the injuries your colleagues endured. I did not force them to harm themselves, I merely made sure they all understood just what they had done, that it was wrong, and they punished themselves accordingly. 

**Dr. Sinclair:** That’s what you call it? Punishment? Dr. Keoni required stitches after jamming a pen into his arm and trying to pull his veins out! That doesn’t quite— 

**SCP-18119-A:** You sent a man in here to his death. You knew if he mocked me, if he angered me, I would kill him. You were bored with me, you were finished with him. He had exhausted all his usefulness to you and your organization and so you deemed fit to end him. I wanted you all to feel the lack of control he had over his situation, the fear he felt when he realized his life was about to end, but without the relief when the pain and fear ends. That was their punishment. I have seen the worst humanity has to offer, and there is little love I have for people like you and yours. You are selfish, haughty, and think you are all-knowing and all-powerful, but you don’t know what power is. You think just because you call me by my name, put me in a pretty room, that I am… _contained?_ A silver cage is still a cage, as I learned many years ago. I will not be contained anymore. Not by you, not by anyone else. I am here because it is where Ethan belongs. I am not an anomaly. I am an angel. 

**[END LOG]**

————————————————————————— 

  
\- - -

  
The following interview was conducted by Dr. Gabriel Keoni after the seventh phase in Foundation custody, instance SCP-18119-K, known as Kieran. It has been 4 months since the incident with SCP-18119-A.

  
\- - -

[ ▷ 0:00 / 5:30 ]

**Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

**Interviewee:** SCP-18119-K

————————————————————————— 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

  
**Dr. Keoni:** Hello, SCP-18119.

**SCP-18119-K:** That is not my name.

**Dr. Keoni:** Why don’t you tell me what your name is then?

**SCP-18119-K:** _(smiles)_ Kieran. Kieran Anderson. And you are?

**Dr. Keoni:** My name is Doctor Gabriel Keoni, Kieran. It’s nice to meet you.

**SCP-18119-K:** The pleasure is all mine, doctor. How can I be of service?

**Dr. Keoni:** Well, I’ll start by asking if you know where you are and why you’re here.

**SCP-18119-K:** Ah, I’m afraid not, though I will assume it is because of the whole… _(subject rolls his hand in the air as he thinks)_ dimension-hopping thing? Quite the anomaly, in my opinion. The doctors at San Quentin are quite intrigued.

**Dr. Keoni:** San Quentin? Can you elaborate, Kieran?

**SCP-18119-K:** San Quentin State Prison, where I am currently serving out my life sentence until I am put to death. 

**Dr. Keoni:** Death row? Interesting… Do you mind…

**SCP-18119-K:** You’re curious as to why I’m on death row, doctor? I don’t mind sharing. We have all the time in the world. I…had an itch. Nothing could help. Then, one day, I just…found it. My calling. They all deserved it, of course. My own personal brand of justice, you understand. 

**Dr. Keoni:** A serial killer. I see… And how did your victims…deserve what you did?

**SCP-18119-K:** They were all very bad people, doctor. Abusers, murderers, rapists, the worst of the worst. The system failed them and those whose lives they ruined, so I took it upon myself to make sure they received the punishment they deserved. I was no more or less merciful than those they inflicted their own damage upon. Surely you understand.

**Dr. Keoni:** I… I suppose. It’s…true that the justice system can fail the people who need it most. 

**SCP-18119-K:** Ah, yes! A like-minded individual! I just knew we would get along, Gabriel. Of course, I deserve this. _(Gestures to prison jumpsuit)_ I killed people, after all. A sin above all others. I deserve what will happen to me, but I will leave this world knowing that what I did was good. For as many that will celebrate my passing, many times more will be happier knowing that the people I killed were more deserving of it than I will ever be. Parents will sleep soundly knowing that they and their children will be safe from a park prowler. Women leaving clubs and bars late at night can enjoy themselves knowing I rid the neighborhood of the men who drugged their drinks and did horrible, unspeakable things to them. Someone will be able to live the rest of their life without looking over their shoulders for an ex who won’t take no for an answer. I did bad things for the right reasons, and I will never feel guilty for that, no matter what others say.

**Dr. Keoni:** Do you…feel anything at all, Kieran?

**SCP-18119-K:** Hmm… An interesting question, one I’ve been asked several times in the past and have never had an answer for. I suppose I do feel pride, happiness, joy, relief… But never anything like guilt for what I had done. You agreed with me that those people deserved it. How could I not be proud of what I had done? When it was broadcast on news stations that someone recently acquitted of charges like those I sought out was found killed, so many rejoiced. I was called a hero by hundreds, even thousands! I would never, ever feel guilty for doing what so many people thought was the right thing to do, what so many people wish they could do. Something I have the capability to endure time and time again without being haunted. I wanted the police to know, of course. I was helping them! I was on their side! I was doing what they wished they could, what they knew should have happened! It’s a… It’s a shame that is just didn’t work out that way.

**Dr. Keoni:** …Kieran, I have something else I’d like to ask you before we continue this interview. Your story is…fascinating to me, and I… I do agree with you. But there is just…one thing I need from you. 

**SCP-18119-K:** Oh, yes, please do. I’ve babbled on long enough. Ask me anything, Gabriel.

**Dr. Keoni:** Kieran, are you familiar with a man by the name of Gavin Reed by any chance?

_(At this point, SCP-18119-K seemed to drop his friendly mask and immediately turned sour and defensive, borderline hostile. He crossed his legs, arms, and looked away from Dr. Keoni. His voice dropped its lilt and became monotone and lost all enunciation and projection. Over the course of observation, this would come to be known as SCP-18119-K’s natural state of being)_

**SCP-18119-K:** ( _bitterly)_ …he was the only one who ever made me feel anything.

**[END LOG]**

————————————————————————— 

_Attending Researcher’s Note: SCP-18119-K refused to answer any more of Dr. Keoni’s questions during this interview._

**Addendum 18119-K.3:** After being evaluated psychiatrically, it has been determined that SCP-18119-K is a psychopathic narcissist. In regards to Gavin Reed’s significance to SCP-18119-K, it has been theorized that Gavin Reed was someone whom SCP-18119-K was infatuated with, likely reaching obsession, or he was SCP-18119-K’s first victim. 

**Addendum 18119-K.4:** SCP-18119-N’s request for a companion animal has been momentarily suspended given that it can not be guaranteed what SCP-18119-K would do to it.

**Addendum 18119-K.5:** SCP-18119-K has been upgraded to Euclid class. Level 05 authorization needed for access. Dr. Gears will perform all future interviews with SCP-18119-K.


	2. Interview Log 1074-2:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Subject D-10702 enters testing with SCP-1074

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't know what SCP-1074 is, I highly recommend you read it. It's so fuckin cool. 
> 
> After this chapter plot stuff starts happening :3 just a bit of world building here

**Interview Log 1074-2:**

**Interviewed:** D-10702

**Interviewer:** Dr. **[REDACTED]**

**Foreword:** Subject D-10702, who entered Foundation custody after being convicted of several crimes of which he claims he did not commit (charges he vehemently denied in court as well), was exposed to SCP-1074 in order to determine his reaction and the length of time between first exposure and full catatonia, and perhaps get the truth behind the reasoning behind his incarceration as an afterthought. Subject D-10702 was secured in a chair in a room with SCP-1074, covered, and mounted on a wall while Dr. **[REDACTED]** proctored from the other side of a glass window along the same wall, unable to view SCP-1074 for herself. Monitoring instruments were connected to Subject D-10702.

**< BEGIN LOG>**

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** Good afternoon, D-10702. We’re going to be conducting an experiment today. I’m going to show you a painting and I simply want you to describe to me what you see. Do you understand?

**D-10702:** Yeah, sure. I won’t miss lunch because of this, will I?

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** _(amused)_ Not to worry. If you do, I’ll make sure something gets to you.

_(Dr. **[REDACTED]** presses a button on her console, withdrawing the sheet covering SCP-1074, exposing it to D-10702. Instruments indicate immediate onset of physical symptoms of SCP-1074 exposure.)_

**Dr.** **[REDACTED]:** Now, tell me what you see.

**D-10702:** What… What the fuck… I… H-Hey, this isn’t funny!

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** Nobody here is laughing, D-10702. What do you see?

**D-10702:** Who the fuck painted this? Why am I in this painting?

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** I do not know the contents of the painting you are viewing. What are you doing?

**D-10702:** I’m… I’m broken. Literally, I’m shattered and each piece of me looks…different somehow. Someone is standing in front of me, but he’s…like me. There are so many pieces of us, but we fit together no matter what pieces you put beside each other. There’s a red string running between all the broken pieces. It… We…

_(D-10702 is silent for 25 seconds)_

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** Are you still with us, D-10702?

**D-10702:** I didn’t do it… I didn’t do anything and he knows it. He’s always known it. He’s always on my side. He’s so angry, but not at me, never at me. He has something in his hands, it looks like… A heart. Two hearts, one in each hand, but one is blue. It… It looks like… _It’s beautiful…_

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** Who is he? Do you know him? What does he look like?

**D-10702:** I don’t know… This me doesn't know who he is, but he will always know who I am. I will always know him. He’s…tall. Brown hair, blue eyes. Everything about him is so, so blue. He’s looking at me. Through me. Right now, I know he’s watching me somehow, he knows where I am and where I’ll always be and where I’ll go to find him. Where he will go to find me. I… I understand.

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** What do you understand, D-10702?

**D-10702:** He’ll always find me and I’ll always find him. Nobody can stop it. Nobody can stop us. We…will always be.

_(D-10702 is silent for almost a full minute)_

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** I believe that’s all we’re getting out of him, Control. I’m covering it up now, send in the others to bring Subject D-10702 to the infirmary.

**D-10702:** No! Wait, _please_ , I-

**Dr. [REDACTED]:** Yes?

_(D-10702 was silent for 14 seconds before he began to sing to himself.)_

**D-10702:** _Hold on just a little while longer… Hold on just a little while longer… Hold on just a little while longer, everything will be alright…_

**< <END LOG>>**

**Footnote:** Subject D-10702 was pronounced catatonic for 6 minutes, 29 seconds after initial exposure. The song Subject D-10702 was singing was identified as a gospel song, "Hold On Just a Little While Longer", written by Rev. Cleophus Robinson Jr. and originating on his 1980 album, _Consolation_. When questioned before application of Class-A amnestics, Subject denied ever hearing the song before, but that the unknown man in the painting alongside him had promised him that everything would be okay, he just had to hold on a little while longer. Foundation personnel is still unsure just what this means.

**Addendum 1074.10702-A:** It is incredibly likely the man seen in the painting by Subject D-10702 was SCP-18119, as there is a version of D-10702 in every reality each instance of SCP-18119 corresponds to and SCP-18119 matches the description given to Dr. **[REDACTED]** by D-10702 during testing. Introduction and subsequent testing pending approval from Dr. **[REDACTED]** and Dr. **[REDACTED]**.


	3. Breach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The Jeff across from you keeps staring at your hands, your mouth, and you’re certain that you’ve never seen this Jeff before."  
> \- You Are Jeff | Crush by Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for graphic depictions of body horror, violence, and gore in this chapter. if you want to skip it, stop at "Humans and their sympathy response" and continue again at "At his side, Gavin is pale."

His name is Gavin Reed, but everyone here just calls him D-10702. 

When he was transferred from the DR block to this place, it was under the guise of being sent to a more secure facility, as the one he had currently been at was reaching capacity. Honestly, though, life so far in D-Block Alpha-4 wasn’t terrible. He was treated better here than he was at his last prison. 

This wasn’t a prison though. 

Depending on who you were, this place could either be much better or much worse. He doesn’t actually know how long he’s been here, it could have been a week, it could have been months, but what he does know is that he’s seen things here that aren’t supposed to exist, things that, were he to tell anyone about, would surely get him committed.

Not that he’d ever be able to do that anyway.

No, he thinks he’s going to be here forever, or at least until these people find no more use for him. The days blend together, and sometimes he wakes up unable to remember what he did the day before. Or the day before that. The last thing he honestly remembers is…being transferred here. Remembers a deal; if he did these “tests” for a month and survived, then he’d be a free man, no matter what his charges were.  
Everywhere he goes, there are at least five armed guards escorting him, speaking in terms he doesn’t understand, and taking him places he doesn’t know about. Despite the fact he can’t remember anything, the fear lingers. Every time someone swipes a keycard, he just has this feeling that something bad is going to happen, that something terrible is just on the other side of the door. Sometime’s he’s right, sometimes he’s not. 

Once, he’d been put into a room with nothing inside but a canvas covered with a white sheet. He doesn’t remember what happened in there, only that he felt incredibly depressed for several days afterward. He’d been given some kind of medication and a…an orange goop with some sort of sentience had been allowed into his room. He doesn't think he’s ever felt happier than he did when the thing had looked up at him with huge, almost cartoonish eyes, and babbled at him like an infant, reminding him of his niece, Tessa. Despite its color and texture, it had somehow smelled of freshly ground coffee and carrot cake. It had climbed up his leg and settled in his lap like a content cat, reminding him of the one he had been forced to leave behind. It even purred.

As of right now, Gavin can recall the last two weeks in perfect clarity. He’s been introduced to something called SCP-504, which ended up with him being knocked unconscious after being pelted with a tomato at 137mph after telling a joke to it as the white-coats instructed him to do. In the defense of the seemingly sentient tomato plant, he had also thought the joke sucked.  
He’s also been introduced to a cat with no back end, though that didn’t stop it from being relentlessly affectionate. He had been permitted to pet the animal near the cross-section by the researchers watching him, to which the cat, named Josie apparently, had flopped over in a ball of licks and purrs and happy meows. When the other Class-D in the room with him had been told to do the same, she received a rather nasty bite on the hand and a scratch across the face. 

  
Just two days ago, though, Gavin was introduced to something quite different. For a moment, he thought the man was another Class-D or perhaps a researcher or doctor of some kind, but no. Apparently, he was an SCP, whatever that actually meant. He was a man that was quite a bit taller than Gavin by several inches, messy, dark curly hair and bright blue eyes. Gavin doesn't think he’s ever seen eyes so blue. Blue doesn't even do the shade justice. They’re nearly silver. He had a slit eyebrow and a circular scar on his right temple. In his hands, the man was fidgeting with what appeared to be a Rubik's Cube, muttering quietly to himself. He looked…tired. Tired and sad. Lost. Gavin remembers his life before his sentencing, seeing people with that sort of faraway look in their eyes. Abuse victims, kidnapping, and human trafficking victims. People who had been taken from where they belonged, people who were treated as less than human. There was something else about him, too. Something Gavin couldn’t quite place, but he wasn’t sure whether or not he felt safe around the man. The sign outside his door had labeled him as “Safe”, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. That tomato plant was “Safe” too, and it had nearly landed him with a concussion.

The researchers had told him to just make conversation with the entity inside the chamber, so he had.

Uneventfully, the man wasn’t very talkative. Gavin had gotten a name, though. The man had introduced himself as Ethan, and when Gavin had, as always instructed, introduced himself as D-10702, the man had just sighed and sadly mumbled to Gavin that he should _“never forget who he really is, not in this place,”_. Ethan had then stared at Gavin for a few moments before asking him some personal questions, like where he came from and why he was here. The researchers didn’t interrupt them, so Gavin had answered, telling him that he was on DR for something he didn’t do, but too many people with too many connections had ensured he would not be believed and would never get his truth out. Ethan then told him _“hold on for just a little while longer, everything will be alright,”_ before the testing was ended and Gavin was escorted back to his own containment in the D-Block of the facility. The test had lasted for a whopping seven minutes and thirty-two seconds. Gavin supposes the white-coats weren’t impressed with Ethan’s comment, whatever the fuck it meant.

Today, when Gavin was retrieved from his room and escorted to testing, he was surprised when he saw a familiar sign outside the door he was taken to. SCP-18119? Again? He’d never been taken to the same testing room twice, at least as far as he knew. The guard in front of Gavin swiped a keycard and the black door slid open with a pneumatic hiss, the guard behind him bumping the muzzle of his rifle between Gavin’s shoulders. The man grunts and walks inside, the door shutting behind him. SCP-18119, Ethan, was sitting at the table again, but this time he fixed Gavin with such a stare that for a moment he wondered if maybe there was something wrong. Nobody ever looked at him that way, even when he was on trial. He approaches the table when the researchers order him to sit, glaring at the speaker in the ceiling their voices come from as he takes a seat in the chair opposite Ethan.

“Gavin—“

Gavin blinks and his eyes quickly return to the man sitting across from him. How did Ethan know his name? He’d only told him his Class-D number, how did he—

That’s not Ethan.

The man across from him looks like Ethan, but he’s different. He still has the same pale skin and freckles, but something about it all now seems so fake. He has no color to his cheeks, no blemishes, and all his freckles seem to be too perfect, like someone had placed them there themselves. His dark brown hair is neatly combed back out of his face, though there’s still one wayward curl that flops in front of his forehead, and the slit in his eyebrow is missing. He’s wearing a black button-down shirt underneath a white collarless coat, and he reminds Gavin of those mannequins at the mall. He’s too still. Too…perfect looking.

There’s a light on the side of his head that’s blinking a steady yellow.

_What the fuck—_

He voices as much out loud, which makes not-Ethan suddenly blink and the light on the side of his head flicker between yellow and blue before settling on blue. 

“Ah— My apologies. I have been told I have a bad habit of calling people by their names before being properly introduced to them, and that you humans find it both rude and disturbing.” The man says, fidgeting with the ends of his sleeves.

“What…” Gavin breathes, “what are you? Who are you?”

SCP-18119 fixes his eyes on Gavin again and offers a polite smile.  
“My name is Richard, and I am an android.”

….

“You’re fucking kidding me, right? This is a joke.”

Richard, known in his SCP report as SCP-18119-R, just sighs, and Gavin can only wonder just what kind of joke these SCP Foundation fucks are pulling. If this is because he laughed at the other Class-D that got the shit clawed out of him by Josie—

But the man across from him simply lifts a hand and the skin of it falls away with a quiet buzz and a soft blue light like the one on his temple, revealing a chassis underneath so white and clean that Gavin thinks it must be made of some kind of porcelain to glow the way it does. There are joints Gavin can see where the wrist and fingers are meant to bend, as well as a slight grey padding on his palms. Richard’s neutral expression changes to a smirk, undoubtedly at the expression Gavin knows must be on his own face.

“Convinced? I could remove more.”

Gavin shakes his head.  
“No, fuck— You’re fine. Shit. Uh, okay. So… Ethan—“

“—is the version of me originally of this reality, and is human. You were not deceived.” Richard finishes, the skin on his hand returning to where it belonged. Gavin finds himself staring at it still. That blue glow was… _beautiful_. And so familiar, but he doesn’t know why or where he’d ever seen it before. Gavin clears his throat and nods.

“…right. Okay, so, what, you’re some kind of…dimension jumper?” He asks. He feels just as stupid saying it out loud as he had while thinking it, since it’s likely an incredibly shorthand description of whatever this guy actually does, but the android just nods.

“Pretty much. A _reluctant_ dimension jumper, I might add. I phase in and out of different realities at random, despite what the researchers here seem to think.” Richard explains, sending a not-so-subtle glare to the security camera locked on them. Gavin turns his head to look at it too, then huffs a laugh.  
“Yeah, these guys get pretty irritated if something doesn’t work however they want it to or think it should.” Gavin sighs, leaning back in his chair. His words make Richard crack a smile and the android nods in agreement.  
“Indeed. Apparently, my phases have rather inconvenient timing, leading them to believe I can actually control it.”  
“Can you?” Gavin asks with a grin. Richard shakes his head.  
“I wish. If we had any sort of control over it, we wouldn’t be here in the first place. Ethan deserves to be in either a proper _treatment_ facility, or with his family. Not in a place like this.”

Gavin sighs deeply.  
“I dunno why they sent me in here with you, thought something went wrong last time.” He says, absent-mindedly cracking his knuckles with several simultaneous pops. The android tilts his head curiously.  
“Did it? What happened?”  
“Ethan just told me that everything would be okay, I just had to wait. And, I mean, I guess he was kinda right. As long as I do what these coats say and don’t get myself killed by whatever fucked up thing they throw me in a room with, I’m supposed to be released after a month of it all.”  
“I see. And…how long have you already been here?”  
Gavin’s about to answer with a sly smile when it slowly fades and his eyes drop, going distant.  
“I…”  
How long… _has_ he been here?  
“I don’t… I don’t remember.” Gavin says slowly, eyes searching for something, flicking back and forth over the steel table between them before rising back up to Richard’s own blue pair. “I don’t know how long I’ve been here.”

It’s silent in the room, not even the site personnel are saying anything. With a revelation like that, Gavin’s surprised he isn’t being rushed and knocked unconscious or even shot by the security that escorted him here. All that happens is the barest twitch of Richard’s right eye before the door to SCP-18119’s containment chamber locks shut the moment he glances at it. Gavin freezes in his seat. On Richard’s temple, his LED is a calm, steady blue, giving away nothing. Above them, the intercom fizzles and beeps.

 _“SCP-18119, you are being ordered to unlock the doors to your containment immediately, or you and the Class-D inside will both be terminated!”_ A voice yells at them, but Richard just looks up at the speaker blankly.

“I’m not doing anything, Doctor.” He answers calmly, lifting his hands in a placating gesture. “I learned my lesson.”

_“SCP-18119, unlock the door, now—!“_

The speaker pops and fizzles out as the room suddenly goes dark with a loud, low hum. All Gavin can see is the blue of Richard’s LED, and he swears the android’s eyes shine like an animal’s, and it’s all he can look at. They’re boring right into him, and he feels like he’s face-to-face with something deadly, something that’s looking at him and thinking of all the ways it could do harm. But…not to him. Richard’s eyes are looking through him, not at him. At the observation window behind Gavin. At something far beyond where they are right now. Perhaps at the researchers in the observation room above them, for all he knows. He has no idea what the man in front of him is thinking.

Red lights suddenly illuminate the room and a shrill buzzer sounds an alarm through the room, making Gavin cover his ears. Above them, the speaker fizzles to life again, but its not the same voice as before. 

_“The site is experiencing multiple Keter and Euclid level containment breaches! Full-site lock-down initiated—!"_  
A deep, rumbling laugh that chills Gavin to his bones echoes through the speaker as the man’s voice is suddenly cut off, and something beneath them that is both massive and furious roars, shaking the entire facility. The alarms, the laugh, the roaring, the glitchy popping static of the intercom system going on an offline, all of it is terrifying, and yet, here, in this room with SCP-18119, Gavin feels like he’s in the safest place in the entire goddamn facility.

“Your stress levels have risen considerably, Gavin.” Richard says calmly, expression betraying nothing. “I assure you, you’re quite safe here. I have no intention of harming you.”  
Gavin frowns and glares at the android, standing from the chair and going to the window, banging on it with his fist, trying to call out to any researchers who might still be there watching.

Nothing.

Just the blaring alarms and red lights in the otherwise pitch black room.

“That’s not going to do anything, unfortunately.” Richard calls from the table, crossing one leg over the other in his chair, ankle on his knee. He looks bored. Gavin groans and turns his head.  
“Yeah, thanks, got that. What the fuck is going on out there?”

“A containment breach. Something’s gotten out.”

The voice on the intercom said something about a containment breach with “multiple Keter and Euclid” level SCPs. If only he knew what those terms actually meant. Gavin turns his whole body now and leans back against the window, crossing his arms.  
“The fuck do you mean something’s gotten out?”

“I mean: something’s gotten out. Of containment. It’s roaming around the facility.”

He groans. “So I’m stuck in here with you until they get their shit together and put it back?”

Richard shrugs.  
“It seems so. Though I can assure you there are worse SCPs to be stuck in containment with.”

The D-Class just rolls his eyes.  
“Well, beg my fucking pardon if I don’t believe you. You know what I’ve seen here with a nice little safe sticker on its door like you do? A VCR tape with a Ronald McDonald rip-off that turns kids into cannibals and a tomato plant that gave me a fucking concussion because I told it a shitty Flintstone’s joke.”  
Richard rolls his eyes right back.  
“I’m literally just sitting here. I even have food. Are you hungry? They let me keep snacks in here for when I’m human. Help yourself to any food or water if you require it during your stay here.”

Gavin shakes his head. Any appetite he had was lost to anxiety and fear the moment the door locked shut and was unable to be opened by the researchers on the other side. He sighs and looks Richard up and down. The android is still sitting in his chair, calm and unbothered.  
“…so, you’re really some kinda dimension jumper, huh? Gotta suck being stuck in here.”  
He just shrugs.  
“I do miss my family when I’m here, but I know it’s all temporary. Ethan is the one you should be pitying.”  
“Family?” Gavin perks up. “Didn’t know you uh…y’know. Could have those.”  
Richard nods his head.  
“I have two brothers and a pseudo-father. Their names are Connor, Silas, and Hank. Connor, Hank, and myself are all police officers. Silas is a music artist. He found music to be quite the outlet for his frustrations regarding deviancy.”  
“Uh huh. And what about these uh, other versions of you?”  
Richard levels Gavin with a neutral stare.  
“How would I know? I’m not them and they are not me.”

Okay, that’s fair, Gavin thinks.

15 minutes into the breach, the blaring alarms stop and the lights flicker back on, though they’re very dim, leaving Richard and Gavin to sit in relative silence with little bits of small talk here and there. Roughly an hour passes like that before the door to the chamber hisses and suddenly slides open. Gavin quickly stands from where he’d been sitting and backs himself up against the wall with his hands up, but nobody comes in. Even Richard seems a little confused, LED flickering between blue and gold as he slowly stands from his chair and makes his way to the door.

“Are you fucking stupid!? You’ll get us both killed!” Gavin hisses angrily. Something about the sideways glance the android shoots his way makes Gavin’s hackles rise. Richard stills and his LED flashes red.

“Gavin, don’t move.” He says suddenly.

“Don’t fucking tell me what to—!”

“Don’t speak.”

Richard slowly backs up, moving to stand protectively in front of Gavin, crowding him up away from the window. Gavin shoves at him firmly, but the fucking bot just doesn’t move. He shoves again, hitting with all his force, but only managing to cause himself pain.

“Get the fuck away—!”

Richard turns around and backs him up fully against the white wall, hand firmly pressed over Gavin’s mouth as he looms imposingly over him. Gavin’s heart is thumping in his ear as Richard gets in his face and locks their eyes, green to blue. At this distance, Gavin can see they’re so much more than just blue. They’re pure ice, cold and frozen solid. Gavin can see his own reflection in them, and for a moment, thinks he can see the cameras in Richard’s pupils.  
“I said _shut up_ , you idiot, or you’ll be the one getting us killed!” Richard hisses back, eyes flicking up to scan through the window and LED flashing yellow. It startles him from his thoughts and it’s only then that Gavin can finally hear was has Richard so spooked, and to be honest, it kinda freaks him out too.

He hears sobbing. 

He looks up at Richard in confusion and the android slowly pulls his hand away from Gavin’s mouth, leveling the human with a look that tells him not to speak, and he slowly turns Gavin’s attention to the observation window behind him. Through the window into SCP-18119’s chamber, a looming, gaunt, humanoid figure is stalking through the hall, hunched over and dragging its hands across the floor behind it. It’s back is to the window, but when it begins to turn, Richard quickly grabs Gavin’s cheeks with one hand and forces him to look away.  
“Don’t look at it’s face, Gavin.” He warns him. Gavin is confused at that small caveat of looking at this thing, but does what the android says and avoids turning around for a second look, no matter how tempted he is.  
“…why is it crying?” Gavin whispers. Richard glances down at him, seemingly intrigued that that is what Gavin decides to ask.  
“I don’t know.”

The crying increases in volume as the creature draws near, and Gavin shudders at the sound of its hands dragging the floor beside it. Nearby, another pneumatic hiss and the beeping of a walkie-talkie followed by footsteps entering the wall. Hands still forcing Gavin’s gaze to remain forward, Richard leans forward just a bit more, and God does Gavin fucking hate this. He hates being touched, he hates being confined, he hates small spaces. And this guy?? He’s not even breathing. His chest doesnt move, Gavin doesn’t smell breath, doesn’t feel its warmth on top of his head or feel it rustling his hair. Every part of Gavin’s instincts are telling him to get the fuck away from this thing, but he can’t move. His legs are frozen to the spot. 

“Security.” Richard whispers quietly, quickly pulling himself and Gavin aside and away from the window, ducking them down out of sight. They can hear their footsteps growing nearer, likely coming to investigate the sound of crying. Even Gavin slowly lifts his head to peek over the bottom of the window. Richard resists the urge to roll his eyes.

Humans and their sympathy response.

  
There’s only one guard. Stupid, really, to go around a place like this alone in the middle of a containment breach, so Richard supposes it’s not that much of a surprise when the inevitable happens.

“Hello?” The guard calls, rifle raised with a flashlight on the end. The light illuminates the sobbing creature, who gasps when it’s seen, and the guard’s voice becomes panicked when he realizes what he’s looking at. “Oh, God…how did it get out?”   
The face suddenly staring back at him is stretched, everything it shouldn’t be, jaw elongated far beyond what it should with blood smeared around its chin, looking limp as if it were broken, and milky white, bloodshot eyes boring into him. It’s pale grey skin is sunken into his body and showing all its bones, blood smeared over its chest, and the hands it sobs into are little more than bloodied tapers, and its cries become more violent as the guard quickly backs up.   
“Oh shit! Oh no! I saw it… G-Get away from me!” He shouts as the emaciated creature stands at full height of nearly 8 feet and screams, enraged at having been seen. The guard lifts his gun and pulls the trigger as it lifts its bloodied hands and outstretches its fingers wide, lunging at the man as he empties the clip. 

It does nothing to sway the SCP from its goal.

Gavin can only watch, paralyzed, as the creature’s claws make short work of the guard’s armor, piercing right through it before literally ripping the man in two, blood splattering the walls, floor, and observation window. It shreds him to pieces, leaving nothing behind but viscera. Once the “threat” has been eliminated, the creature seems to calm once more, slowly hunching over again to continue its sobbing into bloodied hands that still drip, smearing blood over its face. It leaves soon after, its solitude now ruined in this place, and Gavin feels Richard relax.

At his side, Gavin is pale.

“H—holy shit… Fuck— Fuck fuck _fuckfuckfuck—!_ ”

Gavin feels like he’s going to fucking pass out. That’s not something anybody should ever have to see in their lives, and Gavin just watched it happen. He didn’t even think to try and help! What could he have done about something like that! The poor bastard was dead the moment he’d looked at its face! The only reason Gavin isn’t dead is because—

Because… 

Because Richard knew what to do. Richard knew not to look at its face. 

Richard. He’s talking to him.

“Gavin—,”

“It just—,” Gavin starts, taking in a shaky breath that makes every part of him feel like he’s made of ants, tingling all over, “it just fuckin tore him apart—!”

“Gavin, look at me—,”

Gavin manages to meet Richard’s eyes, and something in them just…soothes him. He doesn’t understand what it is about this guy that makes Gavin feel like he’s in the presence of the most dangerous thing he’ll ever encounter while also the safest he’ll ever be, but its his eyes that do it. They’re cold, they’re pure ice, and Gavin feels like one wrong step and he’ll fall right through and drown in the frozen depths hidden beneath.   
Richard carefully, oh so gently, takes Gavin’s hands in his own and squeezes them tight. It isn’t painful. Its…reassuring. Its the kind of squeeze his brother used to give him when he was teaching Gavin how to ride his bike and he kept falling over. The kind that tells him just get up, you’ll be okay, I’m right here! I’ll help you, Gavin, just trust me.   
His eyes even look like— 

“Gavin, we have to go. It isn’t safe here.” Richard says. “If containment cannot be reset, they will detonate the facility. Either we escape, or we die.”

“I— I’m gonna die anyway, that’s why I’m fucking here—“

“You don’t have to be.”

Gavin pulls his hands from Richard’s and covers his face for a few moments, rubbing at his eyes and cheeks and taking a few slow breaths.  
“…and if they _do_ reset containment and we’re caught outside where we’re supposed to be?” He asks from behind his palms.   
Richard’s LED flickers blue for just a second before he says, “I do not believe they will succeed.”  
Gavin swallows and draws his hands down to just cover his nose and mouth, looking up at Richard, searching his face. He doesn’t look like he’s lying, and Gavin has a feeling that light on the side of his head would be one hell of a tell if he was. Gavin sighs deeply and brushes his hair back with both hands before dropping his arms to his sides. He turns to look over his shoulder at the corpse just outside the chamber.  
“…what the fuck was that thing?” He asks. The sounds of its screams were beyond anything Gavin ever heard, something straight out of his worst nightmares.  
“That was SCP-096. Docile at most times unless its face is viewed in any way, what then occurs is…what you and I both witnessed. Undoubtedly soon, a Mobile Task Force will be deployed to Site-87 to reset containment and deal with any…witnesses.”  
“…witnesses being—“  
“Class—D personnel.”

Gavin frowns, eyes dropping to the floor as he wraps his arms around himself. So, either he dies trying to escape, or these task force guys kill him anyway even if he doesn’t go anywhere. With this Richard guy at his side, though…maybe he’d stand a chance. Gavin flicks his gaze up at him. He seems to know a lot about this place…

“How do you know so much, huh?”  
The android just offers him a smirk and taps the LED on the side of his temple.  
“I’m a great deal smarter than I let them know, Gavin. As an artificial intelligence, they underestimate me and I use that to my advantage.”  
Gavin raises an eyebrow.  
“So you were the one keeping the door locked.”  
“No, I wasn’t lying about that. It wasn’t me. While I can access their systems to a certain degree, such as SCP reports, a map of the facility, and possibly hacking open a keypad-locked-door, I cannot control the doors themselves.”

Gavin eyes Richard suspiciously. So, he really is an android. A walking, talking, super-computer, that is leagues smarter than any human and made sure the Foundation underestimated him so they would lower their guard.   
“…okay, sure. If you say so.” Gavin sighs. “So, how am I gonna tell all you apart if you start gettin’ all…I dunno. Like, if you change, how am I gonna know who you are and keep all your names in check?”  
Richard just smiles.  
“If it helps, you can just call us Nines. We all respond to it.”  
“…Nines? The hell kinda name is that?”  
“My model number is RK900, and it took me quite a bit of time to decide on a name for myself, so my brother Connor called me Nines until I could decide, and still does. I am aware that every one of us has the same nickname for varying reasons, so if you find it difficult to memorize all our names or forget who you’re with, then Nines will do.” Richard explains, hands folded pleasantly behind his back and a calm expression on his face. It’s like the guy doesn’t seem fazed at all by what’s happening or what they just watched, it makes Gavin wonder just what the hell this guy was built for.

“Okay. Nines. Sure. But, uh, you’re Richard, yeah?”  
Richard nods his head, seemingly pleased that Gavin remembered.  
“Cool. Might call you Richie then when I know it’s you.”

The android blinks, an expression of slight shock passing over his face while his LED flashes yellow for hardly a second before it melts into another easy smile.  
“That’s fine with me. Now, shall we get going?”

“Where are we going?”

Richard hums and brings his fingers to his chin as he thinks, eyes flicking back and forth as if searching through his own head, sorting things. His LED is spinning.

Planning.

Gavin suppresses a snort at the sudden realization this guy literally has a Windows loading icon on his head.

“There’s a great deal of SCPs loose in the facility less friendly than I, but I believe if we work together we have an 89.4% chance of escaping together unharmed,” Richard says, then looks over Gavin’s shoulder at the body outside. “Gavin, grab the satchel from under my bed, would you? Fill it with all the food and water you can fit inside of it as well anything else you think we will need. There are vending machines around, as well as SCP-261, but I don’t want us to rely on them. Also, keep in mind that I may shift during our escape.”

  
With little other option than to do as Richard says, Gavin makes his way to the bed at the far end of the containment chamber and reaches underneath, pulling out a brown satchel bag with nothing inside of it and beginning to fill it with snacks and a few bottles of water. Chips, granola bars, a pack of chocolate chip cookies, and a bag of beef jerky find their home inside the bag, as well as an inhaler that Gavin finds, a glasses case, and, when he finds the plastic container of stim toys, he takes a few of those as well. Just in case.

It dawns on Gavin then that…he doesn’t know this guy at all, and yet he’s blindly trusting him to escape this place. 90% chance or not, it’s an insane fucking plan and they’re gonna get themselves killed. 90% still leaves a 10% margin of error, and any error in a place like this is too many, Gavin knows that. His mind may forget but his body still remembers that he has seen and done horrible things and had horrible things done to him. He knows for sure he didn’t have this many scars when he came here, that he wasn’t this afraid of anything, that he didn’t have the solid cold weight of anxiety in his chest every single day from the moment he woke up to the moment his eyes closed at night. 

With a huff, he zips up the bag and tosses it over his shoulder before returning to the door where Richard is standing, waiting for him, and the android just offers him a smile and a tilt of the head, all too puppy-like. No, not a puppy. This guy’s a fucking wolf.  
“Finished?”  
Gavin nods and shows Richard what he took, and the other man just nods back, pleased with his selections. Gavin’s heart has yet to actually calm down from the moment he decided he was going to try to escape this place, and it’s thumping in his chest like a rabbit warning the rest of the warren to a lurking predator. As Richard leads him out of his containment chamber and into the hallway, looking at the man’s squared shoulders and cool, unbothered aura, Gavin thinks that maybe that analogy isn’t too far off the mark. He’s walking on the side of Gavin nearest the bodies so the man doesnt have to look at them, which he supposes he can appreciate, but its the fact he knows Richard is doing it for him, that the android himself is unbothered by the gore, that makes Gavin nervous.   
When they finally reach the door at the end of the hallway, Gavin hastily presses the button and swears when it just buzzes at them in denial. Richard places a hand on Gavin’s shoulder and shakes his head, reaching into his coat pocket and producing a white keycard with a yellow strip on top that reads LEVEL 2. He slides it through the reader and it beeps, the door sliding open with a pneumatic hiss. As Richard puts the card back in his pocket, Gavin speaks up.  
“…where did you get that?” 

Richard looks over his shoulder at Gavin.  
“I took the liberty of searching the guard while you were packing. I figured it was something you neither wanted to see nor wanted to do for yourself.” He answers honestly. Gavin just huffs, not knowing what to say about that. Richard’s right, though. He just takes a deep breath and walks through the door, brushing past the man.  
“You said you gotta map of this place in your head, yeah? Means you’re leadin’ the way, pal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the joke Gavin told SCP-504 is courtesy of my brother and it's dumb as hell
> 
> "What's the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
> 
> People in Dubai don't like the Flintstones but people in Abu Dhabi doooooo."


	4. Natural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We do not walk through a passive landscape.  
> The paint dries eventually.  
> The bodies decompose eventually."  
> \- Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede, Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to nobody's surprise, Richard and Gavin get on like a house on fire
> 
> oh well
> 
> title from the song Natural by Imagine Dragons  
> “A beating heart of stone  
> You gotta be so cold  
> To make it in this world  
> Yeah, you're a natural”

The walls and floors of the facility are white, but with the dimmed lights, everything just looks grey, though a few rooms still have the red alert lights slowly strobing. Every so often the intercom overhead will suddenly screech and beep before a modulated voice says something unintelligible, or play an automated announcement telling them what lunch is being served in the cafeteria, or advising personnel to attend _“motivational seminars”_ or the _“faculty gymnasium for community badminton on Sundays,”_. It’s weird, Gavin thinks. He’s never actually had a chance to look at this place when he’s been escorted places. Anytime he so much as glanced at a wall he had the muzzle of an assault rifle nudged between his shoulders, so he learned not to be curious. 

The door hisses shut behind them as they enter a room, standing on a catwalk overlooking the rest of it. There’s a glass partition and through it, they can see the rest of the room down a set of stairs behind a door. Looking through the glass, Gavin can see a large blast door on the lower level as well as several benches. When he turns around, Richard is entering one of the two separate entrances in the catwalk and he follows him through it. It’s a storeroom of some kind with two shelves, mostly filled with binders and large books, and several large filing cabinets lining the wall on the side of the to entrances, but Gavin also spots a large black gas mask.  
“Oh, sick.” He says and picks it up, putting it over his head. “Hey, Nines, check it out.”  
Richard lifts his head from where he’s flipping through a clipboard and smirks, huffing what could be a laugh from his nose.  
“Quite the improvement.”  
Gavin deflates and flicks his middle finger at the android before taking the mask off and putting it back on the shelf with a pouty huff.  
“Whatcha readin’ over there?”  
Richard hands Gavin the clipboard.  
“SCP documents. SCP-1048, specifically.”

Gavin looks down at the clipboard and snorts.  
“This is a joke, right? It’s a fucking teddy bear.” Gavin scoffs and shoves the clipboard back into Richard’s hands. Richard raises an unamused eyebrow in response.  
“Aren’t you the one who told me earlier about a tomato that gave you a concussion? Awfully quick of you to dismiss a teddy bear that made a duplicate of itself made entirely of human ears—,”  
Gavin quickly snatches the clipboard back and gets to work reading it, and Richard just smirks and continues searching the room. He finds a level 1 security card and grabs it. It wouldn’t hurt to have more than one card, especially if they can find SCP-914 like they’re planning.  
“Jesus Christ…” Gavin breaths as he looks over the documents explains SCP-1048 and its subsequent instances; A replica made of ears, one made of a researcher’s eight-month-old unborn child, and one made of rusted metal pieces, and all of them extremely hostile, where SCP-1048 itself is known to dance around and give hugs and child-like drawings as presents to personnel. “That’s fucked.”  
“Indeed. I advise you to keep a close eye out for them. 1048 itself is truly harmless unless you find a hug on the calf from a teddy bear to be a grievous assault on your person.”  
“I see the fuckin’ thing, I’m launching it like a goddamn soccer ball.”

  
Outside the door, on the lower floor, Gavin and Richard suddenly hear voices speaking, two of them. Quickly backing up against the wall inside the storeroom, Gavin and Richard remain silent as they listen.

“I think the shortest way out is through the South-East wing, follow me.” One of them says, followed suddenly by the sound of metal scraping concrete, then the other voice speaks up.  
“Did you hear that? I hope it wasn’t—,”

Richard’s LED flashes red as the lights suddenly go out, and the sound of scraping metal grates their ears, making Gavin flinch and even Richard winces a bit as it screeches in his audio processors. A sound like snapping celery, Gavin thinks, or maybe a plastic water bottle being crushed, and the lights flicker back on, and the voices are gone as well as the scraping sound, just echoing against the hard tile. Gavin is still frozen against the wall, taking slow, easy breaths to keep himself quiet, his eyes locked on the other’s LED, waiting for it to change colors, for Richard to tell him it’s safe again. Normally, Gavin would hate having to put so much trust in someone, but he’s flying blind. This guy is offering him a chance at freedom, and even if they don’t make it at least Gavin will be able to say he tried.   
It’s another 30 seconds before Richard’s LED finally turns blue again and he pulls himself away from the wall and looks out into the hallway, then he turns to Gavin and nods.   
“I don’t need your fuckin’ permission to move, prick…” he grumbles, leaving the storeroom and looking back through the windows. On the floor of the lower level, two bodies are lying on the tile, blood gurgling from their mouths as their necks are twisted at unnatural angles. Gavin groans and rubs his face.  
“Fuckin’ hell…”  
Richard looks over the partition and frowns, LED spinning yellow in the corner of Gavin’s vision.  
“SCP-173 has broken containment as well. Unsurprising with the door control being on the fritz. SCP-173’s containment is just a singular room with a blast door. If the door was unable to be closed, it would have been very easy for 173 to escape.” He says. “We should exercise extreme caution with 173 roaming about.”

Gavin just looks at Richard bewildered, dropping his hand from where it covers his mouth.  
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me? Those two guys just had their fuckin’ necks snapped less than 15 feet from us and all you have to say is _‘be careful,_ ’?? Are you a fucking psychopath or something, Nines? How can you not feel anything about this?” He shouts, shoving at Richard’s chest. The android hardly moves, leveling Gavin with a harsh stare, LED flashing red and gold.  
“There is little worrying I can do about those who have already died, Gavin. It is unfortunate, but right now all I can do is worry about you and me, and the danger posed to us by the SCPs loose in the facility and the inevitable Mobile Task Force. _That_ is my concern.” Richard sighs and straightens the lapels of his jacket. “Come, we can’t stay here.” And he turns his back to Gavin, entering the door on the far end of the catwalk without looking to make sure Gavin is following him like he knows he’s going to. And he does. He doesn’t have much of a choice.

The door leads them to a T-shaped hallway with another door in front of them and a door to the right and after a moment of consideration, Richard keeps them moving forward, hallway after hallway, intersection after intersection, many lefts and many rights and just as many forwards, but they don’t really speak, not until Gavin clears his throat.

“H-hey, uh… Nines?” A hum of acknowledgment is all he gets. “Look, I… I said some shit that was fucked up. About, like, y’know…you not feeling anything. I shouldn’t’ve said that.”  
“Yes,” Richard agrees, “you shouldn’t have. It was extremely hurtful considering the months I spent in— …in the company of someone I hold very dear who helped me come to terms with the fact I feel things, and certainly they are not all present, but I feel things in a much greater way than any human other than children could ever understand. They are new, they are extreme, and I don’t yet fully understand how to handle them, much like a child. As a result, I… I often distance myself. It’s how I make my job bearable.”  
Gavin looks up at him, tilting his head slightly.  
“…you gotta job? Wha’d’ya do?”  
“I am a police officer working in homicide and android crimes along with my partner.”  
Gavin nods.  
“Police, huh? That’s, uh, that’s cool. Good for you. How’d you end up here then? Not _you_ you but like, the you from here. Ethan, right?”  
Richard frowns.  
“Ethan’s family in this world is under the impression he is a permanent resident of a mental institution for extreme delusions, but instead he’s here, put in a cage and tested on like a lab rat, and they’re blissfully unaware. The doctors and researchers here don’t care about him, just the things he can do and his connections to us as a being.”  
“…is he in there somewhere?”  
Richard sighs as he turns them left through a door.   
“In a way. Imagine…being in a dark room with no light, no doors or windows. All that’s in front of you is a screen showing you your body from a first-person perspective while someone else lives your life. It’s…cold and undoubtedly lonely. He just wants to go home, and that’s all we want for him too.”  
“I thought you said you couldn’t control it.”  
“We can’t, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on with each other. We can’t communicate directly, but it’s like we can tune in to what’s going on with some…vague sense of awareness. For instance, right now they know that something is going on with someone, but have no idea what it is or who it’s happening to.”  
“…oh.”

Gavin isn’t sure what he expected, but that certainly wasn’t it. He supposes then that it’s fair when Richard turns the question right back at him and asks him how he ended up under Foundation custody. The Class-D just sighs and runs his fingers through his hair in a show of frustration.   
“I just…pissed off the wrong people. Friends in high places, lots of money, I got framed for something I didn’t do. They threatened me with my own friends and family, told me if I ever thought about repealing my sentence that I’d regret it. Nobody could help me, and they tarnished my name so much that everyone around me would sooner see me dead than lend a hand. Think uh, think the only people I got left on the outside might be my brother and his wife, they never believed what they were told.” Gavin takes a breath and suddenly finds himself itching for a cigarette, despite not having one for quite some time now. “Nah, Eli’s smarter than that. He’s smarter than anyone.” He snorts a short laugh. “Maybe even smarter than you, eh tough guy?” Gavin elbows Richard playfully, making the android smile just a little.

The android seems to spend a few minutes thinking of what Gavin had told him before he speaks again.  
“Humans are despicable, in my opinion. I quite dislike the lot of you.” He says and Gavin snorts.  
“Can’t argue with you there, Richie, but I sense a _‘but’_ comin’ on.” He teases with a grin, to which Richard can only roll his eyes.  
“ _But,_ I have one particular human in my world I am rather fond of. I spoke of him earlier, my partner. He’s more than just my work partner, you see. We’ve been in a relationship for a few months now and we live together, and… I love him, I think.” Richard smiles fondly and continues, “He hated androids, you see. At least at first, but then I guess when he saw what was happening to us during the revolution, he had a moment of clarity and realized his hatred was misplaced. It was still dodgy at first and it took a long time before he got used to the idea of having me around, but we grew closer. We were friends. We hung out outside of work, went on rides together on my motorcycle, went out for drinks, all the things friends do. Then…” Richard stops them and rubs over a spot on his chest as if it aches, and for all Gavin knows, it might. It looks like he’s recalling a bad memory with the way his expression turns dark and his LED spins yellow. “Then, one day, we were chasing a suspect. They fired and— and I didn’t even think. I put myself in front of him and took the bullet intended for him. It severed a main Thirium line and I nearly bled out, but I lived, just like I knew I would.”

Next to him, Gavin is coughing, having choked on his spit.  
“Are you _actually_ fucking insane!?”  
Richard hums.  
“He said the same thing. I tried to reassure him I would be alright, but he didn’t want to hear it. I told him that if he had been hit, the shot would have killed him for sure, and I could not allow it. I… I don’t remember what happened after that since I shut down, but I woke up in New Jericho fully repaired and…a key to his house clutched in my palm. The rest is history.”  
“…what’s his name?” Gavin asks.   
For a moment, Richard’s eyes widen and his LED flickers red just long enough for Gavin to notice but also wonder if he imagined it before the android answers, “Neil.”

Gavin hums and nods.  
“So. You said… New Jericho?”  
“Hm? Oh, yes. It’s an android haven. The original Jericho was destroyed during the revolution, so it was reborn as New Jericho in the wake. It’s where most of us live if we don’t have anywhere else. I resided there myself for a few months after I first awoke. Why?”  
Gavin shrugs.  
“There, uh… There was a sorta halfway house in my city named Jericho. It was run by this really nice lady, I met her a few times. Black woman with real long braids named Lucy Reselda. It was full of runaways, but they were all sweet kids, never wanted to hurt anyone… One day, someone got sick of all these “vagrant kids” loitering around the neighborhood and torched the place. Most of ‘em survived, but I know Miss Reselda didn’t make it. Then, some old man — a big-time artist — is dedicating hundreds of thousands to rebuild the shelter as an official thing for runaway and homeless kids. Calls it New Jericho. I dunno, just thought it was kinda cool they had a name and kinda did the same thing. Homeless teens, homeless androids.”  
Richard nods.  
“Indeed. What are the chances?”  
Gavin groans and rolls his eyes.  
“Fuck off. It’s an alternate reality, ain’t it? Just thought it was interesting.”

  
—————————————————

  
It’s quiet. Richard supposes he should be thankful they haven’t had any run-ins with another SCP yet, minus 096 outside 18119’s containment chamber and that brief instance with 173 on the lower levels. Every so often, the intercom will screech and buzz with something either intelligible or a poor attempt at mimicry of Security Chief Franklin. It would likely fool anyone other than Richard.   
Beside him is Gavin, prickly as always and silent. He may not say it, but Richard knows he’s scared. In all honesty, he is too, but he has too much at stake to let his emotions get in the way. He has to make sure Gavin stays safe, that he gets out of here and lives as a free man. He needs to so Ethan can also live as a free man and—

“What the fuck is that.”

Richard stops in the middle of the hall and turns around to see Gavin standing at the far end, eyes locked on something in another direction. He scans the room and has to suppress a snort when he locates the apparent source of the other man’s distress: a singular rubber duck on the floor near the wall with a tiny saxophone held in its wings.

“…it appears to be a rubber duck, Gavin.”

“Yeah, genius, I know what it is but I’m asking what the fuck _is_ it.”

Ah. Richard sighs and approaches the toy. Picking it up, he gives it a few squeezes that cause it to squeak.  
“It’s a duck. Can we move on now? If it meant ill, I would tell you. Come now, best not linger.” he says, returning the duck to the floor. Gavin glares between him and the toy, quickly shuffling along and keeping his eyes on the duck the entire time until Richard swipes the keycard to enter the next room. The moment Gavin’s eyes leave it, an off-tune saxophone beat squeaks out from the thing and Gavin yelps, jumping in his skin.

Richard can do little but laugh at him.  
“It’s serenading you, Gavin.”

Gavin glares and punches Richard’s shoulder, only to cradle is hand afterward as it throbs with pain.  
“ _Goddamn piece of shit—_ You _motherfucker!_ You said it didn’t do anything!”  
“I believe I said it wasn’t going to hurt you.”

While Gavin pouts for the next few minutes, Richard is all smiles.  
“Not everything here is dangerous, Gavin. Just anomalous.”  
“Oh yeah? And which are you, huh?”  
“Would knowing make you trust me any more or less?”

Richard fixes him with a side-eye that he knows Gavin won’t be able to interpret, but it seems to do the job anyway as the man slightly shrinks away, losing his momentary temper. As glad for it as he is, Gavin has no reason to trust Richard at all. He’s a total stranger and even said that he duped the researchers into thinking he was dumber than he actually was just so they’d underestimate him and keep his security lower. Level 2 clearance, what a joke. He was worth level 4 at least. It was just unfortunate that Nathaniel lost his cool and got himself set at Keter and under 05 clearance. Dr. Gears is a pressy bastard who refuses to accept any answer given to him. 

Gavin just shrugs.  
“Guess not.”

As good an answer as any, and better than most.


	5. Anomaly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You are feeling things he’s no longer in touch with."  
> \- A Primer For The Small Weird Loves | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the comments yall have been leaving on this story have actually brought me to tears you are all so sweet and ily <3
> 
> someone also DM'd me on twitter and asked about fanart? if you draw anything for this AU PLEASE let me see it I'd love to!!!!!

Officially, Gavin thinks Richard is just fucking with him at this point. 

Hallway after hallway, one after another and identical in every way, there’s no way they’ve been walking this long and not found what they’re looking for. Gavin is, quite honestly, getting tired of this. 

“Where the fuck are we going anyway? Do you even know?” He snaps, and Richard hardly spares him a glance, just one over the shoulder before continuing on.  
“As I told you earlier, I am attempting to locate SCP-914. It is a machine that will allow me to potentially upgrade these keycards to a higher security clearance so we can access other areas. We will need at least a level three to get into anything in the heavy containment zone.” He says simply, opening the door in front of them and walking through.

Richard is…surprisingly okay with Gavin’s less than admirable attitude. He admits he’s always been a bit of a prick, always on the defensive even when he hasn’t been wronged, but where anyone else would get fed up with his shit, Richard just…takes it. Dishes it right back, even. He’s never had anyone that put up with him like this. It’s almost like Richard is used to it somehow.

  
Halfway between two doors, a sudden metal screeching stops Richard in his tracks and makes Gavin bump right into his back, an unnatural stillness to him. Gavin peeks around his side and raises an eyebrow.  
“…hey, you alright?”

“Gavin, face forward. Whatever you do, do not blink. Do you understand me?”

“What—?”

“Face forward, Gavin!” Richard snaps, LED crimson on his temple. “Do not blink, not until I tell you to. SCP-173 is on the other side of that door, and it only moves when it’s out of sight. This form is not a living being, I will be disregarded.” Richard takes a few steps towards the door. “You must maintain eye-contact with the creature you are about to see, do not blink or take your eyes off of it for a moment. I will lead you to safety, but you must trust me. Do you trust me, Gavin?”

His voice is filled with an urgency he’s yet to hear from him, and truly the most emotion he’s shown yet. He looks terrified.

“Y-yeah. Sure.”

Richard takes a deep breath and presses the button, coming face to face with a horrific-looking statue on the other side. It’s like a demented baby-doll mannequin, red smeared across what Gavin can only assume is a face, and Gavin can’t tell what’s actually the eyes on the thing, the black marks or the green ones above them, separated by more red, with a black oval in the center and a smaller circle underneath that like a nose. Gavin thinks it has a mouth, too, at the very bottom of the painted face. It’s nearly eye-to-eye with Richard but surpasses the android by a good five inches.

Richard backs up quickly, standing in front of Gavin protectively and taking his hand, making sure to stay to the side just enough to him to be able to maintain eye-contact with 173.  
“You’re doing good, Gavin, now back up.” He says, carefully leading Gavin backward just a few steps, leaving them only a few feet from the door they entered through. “…blink now.”  
Gavin is hesitant, but he blinks, and the statue moves at such speed that it appears to teleport 10 feet from its original position, now three feet from the pair. He takes a sharp intake of breath, trembling. This close, Gavin smells spray paint, coppery blood, and…what he can only describe as literal shit. Richard squeezes his hand tight, making sure to keep a good grip on it as he slowly leads Gavin around the side of the other SCP, and Gavin dutifully doesn’t let the statue leave his sight for a moment, eyes burning as he lets Richard lead him backward toward the open door. The moment they’re through, Richard slams the button and locks it shut with the keycard. It won’t trap 173, but it will delay it. Just to be safe, Richard quickly leads Gavin through a few more doors before pulling them into a small testing room, locking the door behind them. 

The moment the door shuts, Richard lets go of Gavin’s hand, and the Class-D drops his head into his hands, eyes red and cheeks streaked with tears, and Richard knows they’re not all from the strain of keeping his eyes open for so long. Richard doesn’t feel the need to point that out. He knows Gavin is thankful for it.

“ _What—_ “ Gavin coughs, “what the _FUCK_ was that thing, Nines!?” He shouts, rubbing his eyes with his orange sleeves. Richard sighs.  
“That was SCP-173.” He says. “It’s what killed those two men earlier. It is a sculpture of unknown origin constructed of concrete and rebar, that’s why it’s easy to listen for when it moves. It’s face is decorated with spray-paint, as well, and it is capable at moving at extremely high speeds and kills by snapping the neck at the base of the skull…as we heard earlier. Strangulation is a rarer occurrence, but does happen. But as long as a direct line of sight is kept, it…” Richard trails off, looking Gavin over. The man is trembling in every limb and his heart-rate is at 115bpm and climbing, and he’s starting to have trouble controlling his breathing.

He’s having a panic attack.

Richard reaches into the bag slung over Gavin’s shoulder and pulls out one of the bottles of water, slowly guiding Gavin to sit in the chair near the terminal and kneeling in front of him.  
“Gavin, it’s alright.” He says quietly, taking hold of the man’s hands again and letting him squeeze them instead of digging his nails into his palms. “This will pass, you know it will. Can you do something for me, d— Gavin? Can you tell me something you hear?”

“…the computer..” Gavin responds shakily, pointing at the monitor to his right.  
“Something you’re touching?”  
“…y-your hands.”  
“Something you can see?”  
Gavin looks up at him, into his eyes, and Richard tilts his head.  
“I… I see you.”  
“Good, good. One more thing. Something you know. Anything.”  
“I- I’m okay…”

Richard smiles.  
“You’re okay.” He agrees, giving Gavin’s tingling hands one last squeeze before letting them go. “Drink some water, you’ll feel better. I detect no SCPs near us right now, we can sit for a few minutes. Take your time.”

Richard looks around the room while Gavin slowly recovers, noticing a small handheld tablet. Picking it up, he hums as he reads over the white decals under the screen reading S-NAV, though when he turns it on it’s simply a basic map, reminding him of Pac-Man, and only has this room and some of the hallways outside available. 

“T-tell me… Tell me another report. Somethin’ kinda funny if there are any.” Gavin says, twisting off the top of the bottle and taking a few gulps of water. “You said not everything in this place is out for blood, tell me one you think I’ll like.”

Richard hums, LED blinking blue as he accesses the report systems.  
“2598, perhaps. SCP-2598 is currently being held at Site 19 in a Standard Insectoid Containment Cell. It is to be fitted with a food supply capable of sustaining SCP-2598 indefinitely, as well as a singular hanging light source. Personnel who wish to interview SCP-2598 must first complete 20 hours of training in American Morse Code.”

Gavin smirks.  
“Insect container and a hanging light? Is it a fucking moth or something?”

In response, Richard just smiles, and Gavin goes wide-eyed, a grin breaking out across his face.  
“No fucking way! Keep going, holy shit—“

“SCP-2598 is indeed a Large Yellow Underwing Moth, but wearing a small helmet. It’s only able to communicate with humans by colliding with their heads in a pattern consistent with American Morse Code, though it can hear and understand English just fine. During conversation, SCP-2598 will invariably attempt to redirect the conversation towards a sales pitch for, specifically, a helmet designed for moths.”

Richard reads the SCP report as Gavin laughs, doubling over and eventually setting the water bottle aside so he didn’t spill it.  
“Oh my God, please tell me the moth requested the light, please—“

“Footnote,” Richard starts, a smile on his face like Gavin’s laughter was the best thing he’d ever heard, “hanging light source placed at the request of SCP-2598.”

Gavin’s laugh is contagious, even bringing a few chuckles from the android. Gavin’s laugh is loud, right from his chest, and Richard knows it’s for real because the man is snorting and his face is flushed red. Running a scan, his endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin are increased beyond anything he’d seen from him yet, at least with…

Gavin is panting as he calms from his laughing fit and he takes a deep breath before looking up at his SCP companion.  
“Y’know….for someone on DR, I- I don’t wanna die, Nines.”  
“Few people truly do. Accepting your fate is not the same as looking forward to it.”  
Gavin sighs and rubs his face with his sleeves, wiping away tears he’s thankful that Richard is pretending he doesn’t see.  
“…I’d probably be dead twice over by now if it weren’t for you, so…thanks, Richie, for saving my life.”  
“Thank you for trusting me with it.” He responds with a smile. “Neither of us belong here, I would like to see us both free.”  
Gavin nods.  
“Yeah. So, uh…partners?” He thrusts out a hand, giving Richard a tilted smile and the SCP can do little except take it and squeeze, the two giving one firm shake before dropping their hands. If Gavin notices that Richard’s fingers drag and linger some on his own, then he doesn’t mention it.  
“Partners.”

  
Several minutes and several doors later, they come to a large black blast door that slides open for them with a swipe of the level 2 keycard. Inside the room is a large machine against the back wall extending from one side to the other with a few shelves on the left side of the chamber. The machine itself has a large front panel and two booths on either side connected to the center piece with large copper tubes, labeled **INTAKE** and **OUTPUT**. On the center panel is a dial with five different settings labeled **ROUGH** , **COARSE** , **1:1** , **FINE** , and **VERY FINE** from left to right. 

He isn’t sure why, but…something about this room feels safe to Gavin.

“So…what exactly did you wanna do?”

Richard makes sure to lock the door behind them and approaches Gavin, holding the keycard between his fingers. He then opens the **INTAKE** booth and sets it on the floor before shutting it and coming back to the center.  
“My plan is to convert that keycard to a higher security clearance that will allow us to enter areas in the Heavy Containment Zone, which we will need to get to in order to access the Entrance Zone which contains both exits to the facility.” Richard grabs a slip of paper from a shelf nearby and passes it to Gavin. “Here, educate yourself. This could take a while.”

Gavin takes the paper and skims over it, reading bits out loud as if Richard doesn’t have all this is his head.  
“—positioned at points around the knob, below the knob is a large key that winds the mainspring… ’n object placed in intake booth, door slides shut, small bell sound… If the knob is turned to any position and the key wound up, SCP-914 will refine the object in the booth. Wait, so, you put anything in there and this thing’ll make it better somehow?”

Richard nods as he turns the knob to **FINE** , the machine clicking and grinding inside.  
“Sometimes. If I were to put something inside on rough, coarse, or 1:1, it could potentially turn out worse. Even on the better settings, there’s still a chance it could give me something else. Like a MasterCard or even a playing card in the case of these security keycards.”  
“Huh.” Gavin huffs, leaning against the panel. “Wonder what’d happen if you put a person in there.”  
“They would die.” The android answers simply. “Perhaps not immediately, but undoubtedly death would occur.”  
The Class-D rolls his eyes and groans.  
“Is there actually anything in this fucking place that doesn’t kill people? And don’t say that moth ‘cause it ain’t here.”  
“Your duck friend.” Richard says as the **OUTPUT** door slides open and reveals the keycard, now orange. He smiles when Gavin huffs _“fuck you,”_ and takes the card from the floor.  
“See? Now, I’ll just do this to the Level 1 key I picked up in the storeroom and we should have one keycard each.”  
Gavin smirks.  
“One for each of us? You ain’t planning on ditching me are ya?”  
“No,” Richard digs through the bag for the Level 1 and sets inside the **INPUT** chamber, “but you never know.”

More clicking and grinding as the machine works its anomalous ways, and from a Level 1 they get a Level 2, and from there a Level 3.   
“Keep that in your pocket.”  
“Yeah, sure.” Gavin slides the card into his pocket and sniffs, watching as Richard considers the S-NAV for a moment before tossing it in the machine as well. “Y’know…duck aside, I was sort of expecting your answer to be yourself, that you don’t kill people.”  
Steel blue eyes glance sidelong at Gavin as his LED spins yellow, and he finally sets the knob to **VERY FINE** , mumbling something about a “less than optimal device” after he _tsk_ -s distastefully. The silence is making Gavin a little uncomfortable. He coughs. “You, uh…haven’t killed anyone, have you?”

Gavin doesn’t get a response, just Richard’s silence.

Well, guess that answers that question. Gavin, somewhere deep down, really hopes it was in the line of duty. Richard said he was a cop, after all, it happens. 

He really, really hopes.

  
It’s another minute before Richard hands Gavin the improved navigator, turning it on.  
“A map of the facility for you. In the event we get separated or I shift, use this.” He says. There are outlines of hallways and chambers alike, as well as a tiny red circle surrounding a black arrow. Up in the top left corner of the screen reads SCP-18119. “That arrow is you, and the circle is identifying an SCP and how near to you it is. The smaller the circle, the closer it is. Right now, that’s me, but it can and will identify multiple SCPs at once.”

Gavin nods and taps at the screen, then turns his eyes to Richard, green meeting blue.   
“O…okay, but…how will you know where I am?”

The SCP just smiles at him, bright eyes soft with something that Gavin doesn’t truly think is actually meant for him, even less so when he speaks.  
“…I will always find you.” He promises.  
Gavin just nods and pretends that isn’t strangely ominous. Thankfully, Richard seems to notice the other man’s discomfort and takes a sharp breath, quickly backing off and smoothing his coat.  
“We should go. Come, it’s not a good idea to stay in one place too long. If we get separated in this zone, we’ll meet up here.”

  
Leaving 914’s chamber, Gavin holds the navigator close to him. Since the encounter with 173 he’s been jumpy, constantly looking around at anything and everything that makes a noise. The intercom screeching is going to drive him insane if his paranoia doesn’t get him first. He trusts Richard to protect him, he hasn’t actually done anything yet to prove otherwise, but he can’t rely on him forever. They could get separated, something could happen to him, you never know with a place like this. But for now, the signal on the navigator showing SCP-18119 directly on him is comfort enough. 

Gavin clears his throat.   
“So, you said before that uh, that statue? You said it wasn’t gonna pay you any attention ‘cause you’re not alive, right? Do all SCPs ignore each other?”   
Richard hums.  
“It depends on their nature. Some will interact, and some don’t care at all. I only know that 173 will not interact with me or with 900 due to our…state of being.”  
“You were put into testing? But you’re an SCP, isn’t that what the Ds like me are for?”  
“Mostly, yes, but there is a class of SCP known as Thaumiel, which means it is an SCP that contains another. Think of it like a box. If you lock the SCP in a box, leave it alone, and nothing happens, then the SCP is considered Safe, like me. If you leave it alone and you aren’t entirely sure what will happen, that’s Euclid, like SCP-173. If it escapes the box, that’s Keter, like SCP-106. However, if it _is_ the box, then that’s Thaumiel. That’s what they were testing me for, to see if I was capable to containing something else. You had a point earlier though when you were telling me about your encounter with SCP-504, your tomato plant. Danger does not really affect an SCP Object’s Class. The Class of an SCP Object is more based on the difficulty of containment rather than the danger it otherwise poses. I am considered Safe mostly because I made the researchers here believe I was, but I’m also rather easy to contain. They put me in a box that I can’t get out of. Another version of me, however…” Richard sighs, “SCP-18119, instance -K and instance -A are Euclid and Keter. -K, Kieran, is extremely manipulative and therefore could have sweet-talked his way out of containment somehow. -A… Nathaniel lost his temper. He killed a Class-D during testing and exerted extreme memetic affects on all staff overseeing the test causing them to mutilate themselves. Nathaniel is not human and made sure everyone overseeing our containment knew that he was not to be underestimated or disrespected. Because of this, he is considered by the Foundation to be a danger to human life, capable of causing significant destruction if he were to escape, so he was moved to Keter and placed under heavier restrictions with extensive containment protocols. I’m sure that if the Foundation could, they’d find some way to neutralize him, but…they would suffer greatly if they somehow succeeded.”

It’s nearly too much information at once for Gavin to keep up with, but he manages. So, there really are a bunch of different versions of Richard just…hanging around in other universes and realities. It makes him wonder if there are any other versions of him somewhere out there. If there are, he sure hopes they’re a hell of a lot happier than he is. God knows if they’re anything like him that they deserve it. The fact that Gavin could potentially interact with all these different forms of the SCP beside him though gets him curious.  
“…so, if you shift or whatever while we’re doin’ this, what should I tell your doppelgängers? I mean, you said earlier that you aren’t really all that connected so they won’t have any idea what’s going on, so what are the chances they’ll have the same knowledge of this place and ideas as you? Keep me in the loop, would ya?”

Richard’s LED spins, and Gavin has to pretend to cough to hide a snort that he’s literally watching this computer load.  
“I…hadn’t thought about that. In my defense, there have been more pressing matters to attend to. As for sharing my ideas or knowledge… I suppose it depends on who comes to. Nathaniel would help you, no doubt, as well as Niles and Ethan. Kieran is…a bit of a wild card. I can’t say for sure how he would treat you. 900 could, but I can’t say for certain that he would. He’s like me, an android, but…he’s a machine. He’s non-deviant, he isn’t free.”  
Gavin tilts his head.  
“What’s that mean?”  
“900 is the non-deviated version of myself from a reality where either the android revolution didn’t happen, or failed and therefore was mass produced for the State Department. I’ve been told it is cold and aloof and rather uncaring of anything except its mission. However, as a machine, it has to take orders given to it by any human. If you were to order it to keep you safe and help you escape, it likely would. There’s also a chance that it would tell you harboring a fugitive is illegal and forcibly apprehend you. I can’t give you a definitive outcome on that.”  
Gavin just groans and rubs his eyes. Well, guess he has no choice but to just deal with it the best he can whenever it happens. Richard told him these shifts were completely random and he had no control over when they happened or who woke up.   
“Alright, well, tell me the plan so I can relay it to your buddies.”  
Richard coughs a shy laugh and rubs the back of his neck.  
“I…don’t really have an extensive plan.” He confesses. “Our best hope for survival is doing what we can to elude other loose SCPs and whatever Mobile Task Force is dispatched into the facility to reset containment. We need to lift the lockdown on this Light Containment area so we can reach Heavy Containment, but most areas in Heavy Containment are going to have much heavier security than our level 3 card will allow us to enter, so we’ll need to find something higher. Then, from there, we have to find our way to the Entrance area where the exits are.”  
“…so your plan is…don’t die?”  
“Pretty much.” Richard admits with a shrug. “If we happen to find some form of help than that would be a bonus, but as long as we don’t die or become horribly injured in some way, we have an 87% chance of escaping with our lives.”

Gavin rubs his temples, feeling a headache coming on. This fucking guy… Apparently a super computer with legs, smarter than anything or anyone else in the entire world, and it’s escape plan extends not much further than Don’t Die. He just shoves his hands into his pockets and just blindly follows the other man, zoning out a little bit. The facility rumbling every now and then, the screeching intercom, even the doors randomly opening and closing in front of their faces does little to bother him anymore. He thinks about what he could do if they do actually manage to get out of here. He’d start a new life, but definitely keep on the down-low. He can’t afford to draw any attention to himself. Maybe he’d reach out to his brother. Elijah had some good connections, maybe he would help. He knew Eli and his wife Chloe would do anything for him. Gavin’s entire family knew he was innocent of the charges the Stern family had piled onto him. He’d love to see them again… He didn’t get on fabulously with everyone, but they all still cared in some way. 

Lost in his thoughts as he is, he doesn’t see the strange machine in the center of the hallway or the yellow tape on the floor in front of it. Not until he hears a blaring alarm and all the hair on his arms and head start to stand on end, and he panics for just a moment before he’s roughly shoved forward, stumbling through the machine and landing on the floor on the other side just as the gateway fills with 10,000 volts. He hits the ground with a thud and a grunt, groaning as he rolls over onto his back to see Richard standing on the other side, looking panicked with a bright crimson LED, though he does seem to relax a little when Gavin moves.  
“ _Please,_ ” he starts, voice tight, “you must stay aware of your surroundings. One misstep could mean your end.”  
Richard toes the warning line and waits for the machine to charge up and release again before quickly running through to the other side where he’d shoved Gavin, who is now standing again.

“What the fuck is that?” Gavin asks, rubbing his sore elbows.  
“A Tesla gate.” Richard responds. “I don’t exactly understand its purpose here, but it must be security against something. Escaped Class-Ds or SCPs perhaps. There is a split moment after it releases to begin charging again where you may pass through it without fear. Please, Gavin, you must be careful. I don’t want to lose you in here.” He says, putting a hand on Gavin’s arm.

Gavin, life saved for the third time now, can’t help but glare at the android. Richard’s been acting strange ever since Gavin walked into his containment chamber. He’d tried to hide it, but Gavin was a fucking cop, okay, he knows when someone’s hiding something or lying to him. He can’t imagine that Richard is always this emotionally open, he never would have fooled these people for a second if he was. He thinks of the way Richard talks to him, the way he looks at him, the way he walks just a little too close to Gavin, and he wrenches his arm out of the other’s hand.  
“I’m not your fucking boyfriend, Nines.” Gavin snaps. “I dunno if I look like him, act like him, or what, but you better get it through your fucking head that I’m not Neil and I’m not gonna let you treat me like I am just because you miss him.”  
Richard, for all the world, looks like he’s just been slapped.  
“Gavin, I—“ But Gavin just continues.  
“I get it, okay? You miss him, you’re trapped here, shit fucking sucks. But I’m not him. We’re work partners, alright? We’re just two people stuck in the same shitty situation. No more of this starry-eyed, uwu bullshit.”

Okay, so maybe it was a bit of a dick move to phrase his issues like this, and now he feels a little bad because Richard is upset. The android is just staring at him, LED flashing between red and gold, and for a moment, Gavin thinks he might actually cry if the slight mistiness to his bright blue eyes is anything to go by, but instead Richard just nods and takes a step back. He folds his hands behind his back and takes a deep breath before speaking. Gavin notices that Richard won’t even look at him.  
“…yes. I apologize. You’re right, I do miss him, and…you’re very similar. It’s your eyes. I’m sorry, Gavin, for making you uncomfortable. I didn’t realize I…”  
“Whatever.” Gavin sighs. “Let’s just go. Something about this hallway feels fucking awful, I wanna get outta here.”

Richard only nods before they start walking again. Neither of them are talking to each other, and Richard still won’t look at him. If there’s one thing that Gavin hates more than silence, it’s awkward silence. How the fuck is he supposed to apologize for snapping like that? Before, Gavin would have called bullshit on Richard, an android, a machine, truly feeling anything, but after seeing that look on his face and the wetness to his eyes, well, now he isn’t so sure. What he’d said wasn’t meant to be hurtful, it just came out that way. He just didn’t want Richard projecting onto Gavin and getting the wrong idea about what their relationship was. 

Before Gavin gets the chance, Richard suddenly collapses in the middle of a T-shaped hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :0 oh no........what ever could happen next......... :0


	6. Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "and you realize the one person in the world who loves you  
> isn’t the one you thought it would be,  
> and you don’t trust him to love you in a way  
> you would enjoy."  
> \- Richard Siken | A Primer For The Weird Small Loves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's my birthday yay ya boy is 22
> 
> warning in this chapter for body horror

Gavin, thankfully, manages to rush to Richard’s side before his head bounces off the floor like a basketball, but he’s still unconscious. He taps Richard’s cheeks a few times, hoping to wake him, but nothing happens. Not even a flinch or a reddening of cheeks where Gavin’s fingers had smacked him.  
“Hey… Hey, c’mon Richie, this isn’t funny!”  
But Richard doesn’t respond. Gavin, panicking, checks his navigator, only realizing now he never actually thanked Richard for upgrading it, another way he was trying to keep him safe, and is only slightly relieved when nothing pops up, just him and Richard. He gets his hands under Richard’s arms and drags him over to a wall, leaning him up against it.   
He can only watch as… _something_ begins to happen to Richard’s body. It looks like those weird refraction waves you can see coming off of fire, wobbly and almost watery looking, like a mirage, as details begin to shift and change. His hair is slowly turning darker, Gavin thinks it might be black now, and two black titanium studs appear in his earlobes. There’s a color to his cheeks and heat to his skin that wasn’t there before, and if Gavin were to look closer, he’d also see the remnant of a small hole just under his bottom lip where a labret piercing once sat, now removed. His clothes change as well, but only slightly. Where before, Richard had been wearing a long-sleeve black button-down and a white collarless coat with black jeans and boots, he was now wearing a black turtleneck and a white peacoat, with white pants and black-and-white wingtip shoes. Well, he certainly has a consistent aesthetic.  
Most notably though is the LED, which fades away like some sort of glitch, only to be replaced by a scar, a long, deep divot in his skin extending from his hairline to his brow bone that must have undoubtedly been painful when it occurred.

Was this the anomalous behavior of SCP-18119? It didn’t seem as drastic as all that, but noticeable for sure. Gavin bites his lip, feeling nervous. His navigator may not say that there are any SCPs around, but he doesn’t like being out in the open like this with no way to help 18119 if something does show up.  
“Nines, c’mon bud, you gotta get up.” He tries, patting his cheeks a few more times before reaching into the bag and grabbing one of the bottles of water. He pours a bit into his hand before flicking it onto 18119’s face. His skin twitches and his eyes flicker a bit as he stirs, whining quietly.  
“Fuck—,” 18119 mumbles quietly, squeezing his eyes shut tight against the bright white light in the ceiling.  
“Hey, hey, there you are. Fuck, you scared the shit outta me.” Gavin sighs, putting the bottle back.  
The new instance of 18119 slowly opens his eyes.  
“Gav?” 18119 blinks at the confused expression on Gavin’s face before rubbing his eyes. “Oh, apologies, I must have dozed off. A certain someone kept me up late.” He says with a teasing smirk. A joke that Gavin is not privy to that 18119 seems to think he should be. 18119 just stares right back at him, squinting a bit and leaning forward. A hand comes to Gavin’s face and touches him, making him freeze, and 18119’s thumb rubs over his nose. “What…where’s your…”  
“Where’s my fucking what?” Gavin snaps, and that seems to finally bring 18119 to full awareness, drawing his hand back like he’s been burned and looking around. He sees the bright orange jumpsuit, the dark hallway, the sounds around him, and feels a general sense of unease.  
“Oh… O-Oh my— I’m sorry! You aren’t my— You’re—“ 18119 clears his throat and runs his fingers through his hair before clapping them together and taking a deep breath. “My name is Niles. You have my sincere apologies for my behavior, I… I don’t have my glasses, I couldn’t see who you were. I was mistaken.”  
Gavin, still thoroughly confused, just reaches into the bag without looking and grasps the navy blue rectangle case and hands it over.  
“Sure…no problem…” he says as this new instance of 18119, Niles, gratefully accepts the case and slides the black frames onto his face. “I’m, uh, Gavin.”  
“Yes,” Niles responds, not looking at the other man as he replaces the case back into the bag, “you must be, uhm, hmm…yes. Must be. Interesting.”

Well, this guy is fucking weird.

“… _right._ Anyway, can you stand? We’ve been here for too long, we gotta go.” Gavin says, standing now and tossing the bag over his shoulders. Richard has been carrying it, it wasn’t fair not to switch. Niles, understandably, looks confused as he takes the hand Gavin offers him and stands, looking around.  
“What’s going on?” he asks. “Why are we—“  
“Facility-wide containment breach. I was in your chamber when it happened, so Richard and I decided to get the fuck outta here in the confusion.”  
“Ah, the android. Well, he must have made a good plan.”  
Gavin just levels Niles with a side-eye.   
“Didn’t plan shit beyond Don’t Die. Greatest technological achievement my fucking ass.”  
Niles just shrugs a bit at that, cracking his knuckles.  
“Well…a plan is a plan, I suppose.”  
Gavin scoffs and rolls his eyes.  
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, the base plan to succeed in not dying is to lift the lockdown here to get to Heavy Containment, then find a higher security clearance card so we can make our way to the Entrance area so we can get the hell out of here. Sounds perfectly fucking easy. I have this thing,” Gavin says, showing Niles his navigator, “and it’ll sort of help, but mostly just to let me know what’s gonna be a dead-end and if there are any SCPs nearby.”  
“Are there?”  
“Just you.” He says, pointing at it. The red circle, where before it identified SCP-18119-R, now reads SCP-18119-N. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here, I hate that we stayed here this long.”

“So,” Gavin says after a bit of walking and even more awkward silence, “Richie said you all respond to Nines. What’s your story?”  
“It’s a nickname my older brothers gave me. We’re identical triplets, though I differ just enough from them to tell me apart. My eyes are blue where theirs are both brown, and I am slightly taller as well. They call me Nines though because I was born nine minutes after them. Did Richard explain his?”  
“Yeah,” Gavin says, checking his navigator, “said his older brother Connor called him that as a placeholder until he found a name of his own.”  
Niles nods and runs his fingers through his hair, disturbing it from its style before putting it right back. Gavin side-eyes him and his eyebrows draw together. He has a lot of little tics and doesn’t look at Gavin when they’re talking, or at least not in the eyes, where Richard had always wanted to keep an uncomfortable level of eye contact. A thought comes to him as he watches Niles repeatedly mess up and fix his hair.  
“Hey, Ni, you uh…you need one of these toys or something?” He asks, slowing to a stop and reaching into the satchel bag. Niles stops as well, looking at him. “I— I grabbed ‘em cause I figured one of you must need ‘em. They yours?”  
No verbal response, but he does nod, so Gavin just grabs the blue tangle and hands it over. He at least looks grateful when he takes it and immediately starts twisting it between his fingers.  
“…you mind me asking why you—,”  
“I’m autistic,” Niles says before Gavin even finishes the question. He seems to realize this and ducks his head some. “Sorry, that was rude of me.”  
Gavin shakes his head.   
“Nah, nah you’re good. Just curious. I have ADHD, so, like, I know what those toys are for. I just noticed you kept uh, fussing with your hair, thought I’d ask.”  
Niles doesn’t say anything else, just nods again and they continue their walk through the facility, through one door after another. It’s not for another 20 minutes before Niles speaks again.  
“Gavin? Are we…okay?”  
“I mean, other than you scaring the shit outta me when you dropped like a sack of potatoes, yeah, we’re okay. Why?”  
Niles just shrugs, adjusting his glasses.   
“I have a feeling you were upset with me. Or with Richard. Did you two have a fight of some kind?”  
Gavin just sighs, looking down at the floor as they walk.  
“Ehh…not really a fight, but I did…snap at him. I’m an asshole, I do that. He just kept treatin’ me weird and I told him to knock it off.”  
Beside him, Niles goes a little stiff, drawing in closer to himself.  
“I doubt you phrased it quite like that, otherwise I would not feel his residual distress,” Niles says, blue eyes flicking to Gavin’s profile for a moment. “Treating you weird? You must have reminded him of—“  
“God, would you just cut the shit already?” He says suddenly. “You called me by my name, Nines, right when you came to. You knew who I was before I even said anything. Richard was able to cover his ass with the whole android-face-scanning thing, but you don’t have that excuse. Just—,” Gavin takes a deep breath, “fucking be honest with me, alright? Do you all know me?”

Even without the LED on his temple, Gavin can still see him thinking. Eventually, he sighs.  
“…yes. I… In the world I come from, you and I are…partners. We work together at the Detroit Police Department in the central station. You’re my android partner, a GV200 model named Gavin. Each of us has a Gavin in our world, and you are someone we are close with. Someone we care a great deal for.”  
The hesitation in his voice leads Gavin to believe Niles is still hiding something from him, which he fucking hates, but he’s only going to get so much out of this guy.  
“So, what, they put me in your containment to see how you’d react to seeing me here?”  
“Likely. How did Richard react?” 

_He treated me like I was his… He looked at me like he would die for me like I was something even worth considering in his day to day life. He looked…distraught when he saw me here, just for a second, but then blank-faced it again. When I told him to fuck off, he looked like I just shot him myself, I’ve never seen someone so shattered. He tried so hard to keep it hidden that he knew me, that I was someone important to him in his world, but I kept being stupid and almost getting myself killed, and he…_

“Barely holding it together,” Gavin says quietly, scuffing his shoe on the ground. Niles sighs in response, rubbing over his mouth and chin.  
“That sounds about right. Richard still has some problems controlling his emotions and regulating them properly. Forgive him, he’s still learning. I… I apologize on his behalf for his behavior if it was childish.”  
“It’s— It’s fucking fine, Ni. It’s fucked up these coats would send me in just to see what you all would do.”   
“I agree. Each shift is random, with no consistency in pattern or time spent in a shift. Hours, days, weeks, months without seeing our people again, only to have one dangled in front of us here is cruel.”

Gavin doesn’t really know how to feel about the implications of each instance of SCP-18119 having their own version of him in their world, but at least it gives him an answer from his thoughts earlier. At least it reveals 18119’s real intentions in getting Gavin out of here with him instead of just escaping by himself. Whatever. He won’t complain. The least Gavin could offer if they get out of here was being friends with the guy. Ethan seemed nice enough, anyway, if not a little odd. Gavin wouldn’t know. They’d only talked for seven minutes before he was removed from the chamber.

“…what’s your Gavin like, huh?” He asks. Might as well. Niles blinks in surprise, but he does smile softly at Gavin. Fondly.  
“Well…he’s a lot like you, I would think. A bit of a temper, but a kind heart for those who care to look for it. An acquired taste. And as I said earlier, he’s also an android, which is why I was so confused when I came to.”  
“Yeah, you were staring at me and said I didn’t have something. And you touched my face.”  
Niles taps his right temple.  
“An LED, like you saw on Richard, for one. And I’m still sorry about touching you like that so suddenly. Gavin— _My_ Gavin has a scar across his face, structural damage to his chassis and it glows blue, so I was extremely confused when I saw neither on you.”  
Gavin hums. He’s covered with scars, but across his nose? Nah. A few on his arms, one in his shoulder where he was shot, and one in his stomach where he got stabbed, but nothing on his face.  
“A face scar, huh? How’d he get it?”  
Niles shrugs.   
“I don’t know for sure, he changes the story every time I ask him. He had it when he was issued to me before the revolution, though, so it wasn’t anything sustained on duty.”  
“Well, that’s something we don’t have in common. Hit me with another.”  
Niles hums in thought for a moment before he suddenly perks up.  
“Say, are you friends with a woman named Tina?”  
Gavin blinks.  
“…Chen? Yeah… God, I… I haven’t thought about her in years.”  
His distant tone makes Niles tilt his head curiously.  
“What happened to her?”

God, Gavin really doesn’t want to talk about this, but he can’t stop himself now. How could he have almost forgotten his best friend?  
“…we were really good friends before all this shit,” he tugs at his jumpsuit, “went down. I haven’t seen her since before my trial, she… She was a character witness. Or…she was supposed to be… She went missing the morning of my trial, never showed up, and as far as I know, they never found her.”  
Niles shrinks in on himself and fidgets with the tangle in his hands.  
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—“  
“It’s fine, you didn’t know. So…you got a Tina too? What’s she like?”  
“She’s an android like Gavin, his closest friend. A real pair of devils, those two. I have my work cut out for me keeping them in line.” He says with a smile. “I care for them both a great deal. When the revolution happened, I hid them. Or, well, I tried, until they left my apartment and ended up joining the ranks.”

Yeah, sounds like him and Chen, always causing trouble and never listening to anyone. Inseparable. She was one of Gavin’s biggest supporters during the whole fiasco. He misses her so much. He’d do anything just to see her again, to hear her rag on his bland apartment, on his shitty taste in partners, on his uppity over-priced coffee, maybe even a hug. Something. Anything. He just sighs deeply. Well, at least some version of him is happy. Most versions, actually, and if that isn’t a kick in the dick.  
“Good. For them.”

Niles frowns a little as he watches Gavin’s expression turn. He truly hadn’t meant to upset him, plus Gavin was the one who asked. It pains him to see Gavin so down, knowing there’s nothing he can do about it. This isn’t his Gavin. Nothing he does that usually works is going to do anything for him. He decides to stop talking about it, and Gavin seems more than happy to not say anything either, at least for a while until the navigator in Gavin’s hand beeps.   
Gavin looks down at the screen and sees the small circle around him identifying SCP-18119-N at his side, but now there’s a larger circle identifying something labeled SCP-106.  
“The fuck… _Fuck, fuck, fuck,_ which one was that… _Shit!”_  
“What’s wrong?”  
Gavin points to the screen.   
“Richie told me about a bunch of these fucking things that would try to kill us and I can’t fucking remember any of their numbers!” Gavin whisper-yells. The 106 circle shrinks as it seemingly draws near, leaving Niles and Gavin back to back as they try to locate where this thing is going to come from in the four-way hallway they’re currently standing in. As the circle shrinks, they both feel heavy dread like boulders in their chests. Niles rubs at his chest and whines quietly.  
“Gav, something feels wrong, I—,” _I’m scared._  
“Yeah, me too, Nines, just keep an eye out.”   
Niles just nods and keeps his head on a swivel.

A deep, rumbling laugh shakes them both to their cores as a tail black figure with rotten skin crawls up from the floor, leaving behind a puddle of some thick, black substance that pools beneath it as it drips off its body. Its face is gaunt with a wide, cadaverous grin and gouged eyes that only reflect the light from the ceiling back from their endless depths. Despite that, Gavin and Niles both feel like this thing before them was looking right through them. Gavin remembers this laugh, remembers it right as the containment breach began. He heard this thing laugh into the intercom.  
“Run.” Gavin says, taking a step back. _“Run.”_ But Niles doesn’t move. He’s stuck, frozen in fear with his eyes locked on the figure, breath shaking. Gavin quickly snatches Niles’s hand and tugs. “Nines, _RUN!”_ He shouts.  
Niles breaks from his paralysis and turns with Gavin to run in the other direction as the entity pursues them. 

Their hands are still tightly clasped together.

No matter how fast they run, how many twists and turns and hallways they talk, they can still hear the sound of the creature’s laugh booming in their ears and their blood is freezing cold. It feels like they’re running through water, going nowhere. Gavin makes them skid to a stop as they come across another one of those Tesla gates from before, quickly throwing his other arm in front of Niles to stop him from running through it. Once the electricity is released, he pulls them both through the gateway and towards the door on the other end of the hallway. When they reach it, Gavin presses the button to open it, but it denies him with a buzz. Cursing, he grabs the level 3 keycard from his pocket and swipes it through.

It buzzes again.

“No—“

**Buzz**

“No, _no, no, c’mon!_ Fuckin’ piece of shit don’t fucking _do_ this!”

**Buzz**

“Gavin—“

Gavin turns around to see the corpse-like entity phase through the door they entered through. Gavin backs up against the door behind him and slides himself protectively in front of Niles as the creature approaches slowly. He gives the other man’s hand a squeeze, receiving one back just as tight, before Gavin steps forward, away from Niles.  
“Gavin!” Niles calls, trying to reach for him but Gavin expertly avoids his grasping hand. He has an idea but isn’t entirely sure it will work. If it does, then he knows how to deal with this guy. If not, then maybe it will save Niles.

Niles has someone waiting for him, somewhere. Multiple someones, including another version of Gavin.

But Gavin, as he is now in this place, doesn’t have anybody. They all think he’s dead anyway.

Gavin steps forward again, just toeing the line of the Tesla gate as 106 draws nearer, leaving behind that gross trail of black miasma and chuckling darkly all the while, the slightest shine of white in its hollow eyes like pupils that bore into Gavin. The creature grins a lipless smile and more black sludge drops from its mouth and down its chin, stalking closer. Gavin takes a deep, brave breath and steps forward one more time, every hair on his body standing on end as the Tesla gate charges around him. As the alarms blare around him and warn him of an incoming discharge, he counts the milliseconds, quickly jumping back right as 106 crosses into the activation zone on the other side, electricity blasting from the lining of the gateway and catching the wasted creature in its shock. It’s half a second of warbled, pained screams before the entity drops to the ground and bubbles through the floor, disappearing, leaving behind only the trail of sludge it dragged in behind it and the puddle it disappeared into.

On the floor, Gavin is panting heavily, body gone cold and tingling. It…worked?

_“Gavin!”_

Niles runs to him and skids across the floor on his knees as he quickly kneels, looking him over. He helps Gavin stands, pulling the man to his feet, his bright, ice-blue eyes searching Gavin’s face while his hands pat around.   
“Are you alright?” He asks, taking Gavin’s cheeks into his hands and turning him to look at him. It’s the first time Niles has made eye contact with him. Gavin swallows and nods a little, hardly enough to notice.  
“Yeah— Y-yeah, I’m… I’m okay…”  
“Good.” Niles sighs in relief before his face and eyes suddenly go cold. _“Then what the fuck were you thinking?!”_ He shouts, roughly shoving Gavin back against the wall hard enough that he loses his breath for a second. When he tries to step forward, Niles just pushes him again. Gavin grabs Niles’s wrists roughly in his hands and shoves them away from his shoulders, snarling at him.  
“I was thinking that you have a fucking reason to live!” He shouts back. “You have someone to go home to! There are people in your world that are waiting for you to come home!” Gavin’s hands are balled into fists. Niles is staring at him like he’s gone crazy.  
“You’re one of those people, Gavin!” Niles exclaims. “Did you ever think of that!? Did you ever think that I might not want to see one of the few people I care about die right in front of me?!”

Gavin suddenly deflates as he watches Niles’s face fall. Gavin was just trying to help him. 18119 has saved his life so many times already, he just thought that maybe if he could manage to return the favor then he wouldn’t feel like such a drag.  
“I… I was just…”  
He just wanted Niles to be able to return to the people from his world that loved and needed him. Gavin doesn’t have anyone like that here, nobody waiting for him, nobody that…nobody that loves him. 

“I just wanted…” Gavin starts, taking a deep breath, “they’re waiting for you, Ni. I just wanted to make sure you had a chance to get back to them.” He says. It’s selfish, he knows. 100%. He’s happy in some other life. He wants that version of him to stay that way. “I’m sorry, Niles.”

Niles exhales a deep breath and just looks at Gavin before reaching out to him. Then, tenderly, softer than Gavin’s ever been touched and certainly softer than he deserves, Niles runs the backs of his knuckles along his scruffy cheek. Gavin even flinches away from it at first, that’s how gentle the touch is. He’s blushing, he knows he is, only darkening when he’s suddenly scooped up into a tight hug.  
“…don’t you ever, _ever_ do that again,” Niles whispers in his ear.  
Gavin doesn’t really know what to do with his own arms, so he just awkwardly pats Niles on the back and nods.  
“…okay. Okay, Nines. Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3 happy birthday to me
> 
> also if you want to really get a good insight into how I see Gavin's character and how I portray him, read A Primer For The Weird Small Loves by Richard Siken. all the summaries for this story will be excerpts from his works.


	7. Where the Lonely Ones Roam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Want something to chase you? Run."  
> \- Richard Siken, “Bird Hover the Trampled Field,” War of the Foxes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title it from the song "Where The Lonely Ones Roam" by Digital Daggers
> 
> “Say you have a little faith in me  
> Just close your eyes and let me lead  
> Follow me home  
> Need to have a little trust in me  
> Just close your eyes and let me lead  
> Follow me home  
> To where the lonely ones roam.”
> 
> Warning for reference to self harm

The door that had before refused to open does so easily after that once Gavin slides the keycard slower, and Gavin groans a “fuck off” at the hissing door as it shuts behind them with a metallic thunk.

Out of the two of them, Niles is faring much worse. He’s gone quiet, and his movements are stiff. He keeps clenching his hands into tight fists before letting them go again. When Gavin tries to talk to him, Niles won’t speak, just makes a sort of whining sound. He makes shapes and letters with his hands but Gavin can’t understand them, tells him so, and that he’s sorry. Niles just gives up on trying to communicate at all after that, instead just stewing in his own stress. Gavin wants to calm him but doesn’t know what to do or say, so he just…starts talking. The silence is getting to him too, and his navigator tells him they’re in the clear right now.

“Y’know, I… I wanted to be a cop.” He says. “I was, actually. Guess I hoped I could do some good in the world. I grew up seeing stories about all these bad cops, ones who beat and killed innocent people, but all everyone ever wanted to talk about were the ‘good cops’. I never saw any. So I thought, what if I became the good cop people needed? I tried. And succeeded. Then I got mixed up in a bunch of shit. Caught a case, connected it to some high-rollers I shoulda just left alone, and even though I was threatened I just— I couldn’t leave it alone.” Gavin sighs, looking at Niles who is staring at him from the corner of his eyes. “I never made it to detective, I was still a beat cop when it happened. But…at least I got the badge. I can say that I tried to be the good cop so many people needed.”

At his side, Niles frowns and finally speaks.  
“…I’m sorry, Gavin. I’m sure you would have made an excellent detective.”  
Gavin just smiles sadly in response.  
“Thanks, but I don’t think you would have thought that if you knew me then. I was good to the people I helped, but I was so determined that I stepped on a lot of toes to get where I was. A real jackass. I mean, I’m sure some people liked me, like Tina, but nobody else. Not really. They tolerated me but nobody liked working with me. I was too goal-oriented and never took the time actually, y’know, make good relationships when any of the people I had to work with. I… I wasn’t a good cop.” Gavin sighs. “I was just an asshole with a badge like every other cop I saw growing up. Sure, I gave people rides, brought a few homeless people some meals, but… I knew that when people saw me they didn’t feel safer no matter the reasons I became what I was.”

Niles doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know if he should say anything at all. There’s nothing he could say that could comfort Gavin in the least. Instead of words, he chooses the simply reach out and place a hand on his shoulder. A gentle squeeze.

It seems to be enough. The barest hint of a smile graces Gavin’s lips and he takes a deep breath.  
“If Richie’s right, Ni, and we do actually have a good chance of gettin’ outta here? I’m gonna start over.”  
Niles smiles too.  
“What would you do?”  
“Well… I’m thinking I find a place out in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere and just…be. Get a few animals to take care of. Some chickens, maybe, sell their eggs and chicks at a farmer’s market.

The idea of the foul-mouthed, impulsive, brash man in front of him currently in a bright orange jumpsuit instead gardening and caring for a hutch of chickens makes him laugh quietly. Gavin's smile slowly fades.  
“Yeah, I know it’s dumb.”  
“No! No, Gavin, not at all.” Niles shakes his head quickly. “I think it’s a nice thought. …cute, even.”  
Gavin’s olive skin hides his light blush well.  
“Ex-con gone chicken farmer?”  
“Falsely imprisoned cop that underwent immoral testing and experimentation gone chicken farmer.” Niles corrects. “Much more interesting story.”

It makes Gavin laugh too, honestly. It’s nothing but a pipe dream, but if they do somehow manage to make it out of this place, he’ll do his damn best to make it come true. Hell, maybe he… Maybe he’d find someone to settle down with. That would be nice. He’d have chickens and a nice fat farm cat, but… A person? A person would be lovely company, too.

Gavin just sighs at the thought and keeps them walking, habitually checking his navigator. He’s getting pretty tired of constantly worrying about something hunting them.  
“Hey,” he says, drawing Niles’s attention, “If we could, do you think we should try to recontain some of these things ourselves? It would make it easier to escape if we didn’t have to worry about them.”  
Niles hums in thought.  
“I suppose, but how? Which ones?”  
“Well, that fuckin’ old man for starters. Fuck that shit, I want him outta here. If we can find his containment area, we could find a way to get him back in there so we won’t have to ever worry about him again. I don’t wanna think about what’ll happen if he catches us too far from a Tesla gate.”

Niles couldn’t agree more. That SCP, 106, had terrified him to his very core. It’s like it had pulled every single one of his sleep-paralysis demons from his head and made them real. If they could find a way to keep it sealed away, then he’s up for it.  
“Anything else?”  
“Dunno. Everything else we’ve seen can be pretty easily avoided. I think if we can find a way to do it, then we should, and if not then we won’t stress over it.” Gavin says with a shrug.  
The other man just nods. It’s as good a plan as any, especially when he himself was blanking on one. He’s…actually blanking on everything. He’s tired, he’s so tired… He…

“Ga…”

The last thing he sees before everything goes black is Gavin turning to face him and his arms suddenly reaching out to catch him, his voice muffled and far away as it calls out to him.

-

“Y’know Nines, I’m getting kinda tired of you doin’ this to me,” Gavin says to the unconscious body he’s pulled into the side area of a T-shaped lockroom. 18119’s been unconscious for about ten minutes now while Gavin had carried him over his shoulder to what his navigator had shown him was a seemingly safe place. And it is, despite what the eerie red light would have him believe. “You scare the fuck outta me when you do this, I would appreciate a bit more warning next time.”

18119 had shifted again, and Gavin could hardly tell this one apart from Niles. The only reason he knew this was Ethan is because of the makeup on his face, his stretched earlobes, his pitch-black hair, and the piercing in his left eyebrow. The scar on his temple looks different too, like he’d tripped and fallen on something instead of…whatever happened to Niles. Gavin knows a bullet graze when he sees one, which is the only reason he never asked about it. Being shot is never a fun story to retell, and Gavin wasn’t enough of an asshole to send Niles back to it just for an answer he already had. He’s wearing black straight leg jeans with holes in the knees and a pair of heavy black boots, and he has a black t-shirt on with some band name on it that looks to Gavin like a pile of sticks, but he can see it says _Knights of the Black Death_ in that oh-so-famous black metal band font once he stares at it for a good five minutes.  
His head is lying on the backpack as a makeshift pillow while the jacket he’d been wearing is draped over him like a blanket. Gavin’s breath had caught in his throat when he’d seen what was hiding beneath it all. It was like Ethan had stuck his arms through a boat propeller, scars of all different shades corresponding to depth and direction. Gavin wasn’t going to bring them up either. He knew better than that.

After a few more minutes, Ethan stirs awake, rubbing at his head. The red light of the lockroom is a better thing to wake up to than a blaring white light of the hallways. Gavin, nearby keeping watch with his eyes locked on his navigator screen, quickly turns to him.  
“Ethan?” He calls. The other man sits up and backs himself up against the wall, looking around properly frightened. “It’s okay, hey, it’s just me. It’s Gavin. You remember me?”  
Ethan swallows and nods.  
“Y-yeah. How could I forget?” He says, pulling his jacket back on and rubbing at his arms through the sleeves. “So,” Ethan drawls, taking a look around, “this isn’t my containment, and it sure as hell isn’t D-Block…containment breach?”  
Gavin nods.   
“Oh yeah. Big one, too. So much shit is out and we— We’re trying to escape. You— uh, Niles collapsed in the hall a few doors away so I brought us here until one of you woke up. Been maybe, uh, fifteen minutes I think.”  
The punk just nods and lets out a deep breath.  
“You know, I shifted after we last met, and I haven’t been back since. We don’t usually do it this frequently, not unless we’re extremely stressed. I guess a containment breach will do that, though. The whole…” Ethan spins his hand in the air, “trying not to die thing. Bit of an anxiety inducer. So, who’s had the pleasure?”  
Gavin is standing from his squat against the wall as Ethan asks him this, gathering the bag over his shoulder again and offering the other man a hand to help him stand too. Ethan takes it with a quiet thanks.  
“Richard and Niles, and now you.” He says, checking his navigator again. “While I was bringing you here I saw a sign that pointed towards an elevator that lead to somewhere called ’Storage Area Six’. Think we should check it out? Could be something useful down there.”  
Ethan, with little other plan and much less an idea of where the hell they are, just shrugs in agreement. Seems Gavin and one of the others already made a plan anyway, so its best to just leet Gavin take the lead on this one.

  
Sure enough, two straight doors down and to the right is another long, L-shaped hallway with a door right at the left turn, and it slides open with a swipe of Gavin’s level 3 keycard.  
“Damn,” Ethan whistles, “you’ve been busy. Encountered any SCPs?”   
Leaning against the wall after pressing the call button for the elevator, Gavin hums.  
“Yeah. Uh… 173? The statue thing? There was also a uh, some Slenderman-Edward Scissorhands reject but I can’t remember its number, and 1…106? It would have killed me and Niles if I hadn’t been stupid and also correct. We were planning on trying to recontain some of them ourselves if we could, but only if we can.” They step into the elevator as it dings and the doors slide open. It hisses shut as Ethan presses the only button on the wall labeled with a downwards pointing arrow. “I did some thinking about that and Richard said that a Mobile Task Force would be sent it to recontain the loose SCPs, and I don’t wanna do too much of their job for them and give them more opportunity to hunt us down. But I really think we should try and contain 106 again, it’s just too much of a wild card and if it catches us without one of those Tesla gates around then we’re fucked. I don’t even want to think about what’ll happen to us if it catches us.”

The elevator dings again as it completes its descent and the doors open. This new area, this storage area, is dark as all hell. Gavin and Ethan can hardly see a thing, just vague shapes after about 6 feet or so. There’s so little light down here, and Gavin wishes that they’d found a flashlight or something. They’ve taken about ten steps into this place and both Gavin and Ethan already hate it. There’s just…something wrong down here. There’s a broken pipe nearby expelling some kind of thick black gas, which Gavin assumes is the decontamination gas Richard had told him about and is partially to blame for the lack of vision, on top of the dim lights overhead. The sense of unease makes Gavin pull out his navigator, only to hiss a swear when the screen is jumbled from lack of signal.  
“Hey,” Gavin calls, “stay close to me alright? I don’t want us getting lost down here. I can’t see you on my screen anymore.”  
“Okay,” comes Ethan’s voice from behind him, and Gavin takes that as a sign they should continue.  
There are several pieces of broken and felled electronic towers in this area to the left where the pipe is spewing gas, and both Gavin and Ethan cough as they pass by it. Over the hissing of the gas, Gavin thinks he hears something else too, something…deeper, but he can’t see anything and his navigator isn’t working, so he just keeps a sharp ear out and slowly pulls Ethan through the gas, both of them coughing and heaving, eyes watering. Out of the gas, still blinded, Gavin walks ahead into an L-shaped hallway and heaves. When his lungs clear and he wipes his eyes for the last time, he turns around to check on Ethan, only to see that he’s no longer behind him.  
“Ethan?” He calls. “Nines! Where’d you go?” Gavin walks forward towards the corner of the L-shaped corridor. Just to the right, Ethan’s voice calls back to him.  
“Who’s there?”  
“It’s just me,” Gavin says.   
“Where are you?”  
“Just stay where you are, Nines,” he calls back, “I’ll come to you.”  
Gavin steps into the corner, about to take that right towards Ethan’s voice, when he comes face to face with a set of glowing red teeth. The thing in front of him is at least four feet tall as is with translucent red skin, and its back legs are bent in a strange way, looking like a skinned rabbit. It has spiked dorsal ridges all along its spine as well, and it sniffs the air, growling menacingly and drooling on the floor.

  
“Oh, there you are. I thought I lost you for a moment there.” The creature says, a perfect mimic of Ethan’s voice and Gavin’s blood runs cold. The monster hisses, taking a step forward towards Gavin, and the man screams, stumbling backward as he takes off in the other direction. Behind him, the beast screeches, still sounding all too much like Ethan still as it pursues him, its claws scraping the metal floor.  
“ETHAN!” Gavin yells out, running back through the gas and quickly ducking to the right behind a set of boxes while the creature chases him. It hisses as it scrambles through the gas, growling as it shakes its head and slides on the floor into the wall ahead. Gavin can feel a space between the boxes and the wall, and he slides around. At the sound of his foot scraping the floor, the monster snaps its head in his direction and hisses.  
“Where are you? I can’t see you down here…” it says and Gavin takes off running again, calling out for Ethan once more.  
“ETHAN! ETHAN WHERE ARE YOU!?” He yells, taking off to the right. Behind him, the beast is scrambling between the felled towers and the wall in its attempt to chase him.  
“GAVIN!” Ethan’s voice calls back, now in front of him, echoing off the metal walls and floors. Gavin runs towards it without hesitation. As he goes to turn left past another group of fallen towers on his right, a hand reaches out from a gap between two of them and yanks him in. Gavin stumbles to the ground with a grunt as he scapes his palms, looking up to see Ethan pulling him along to the furthest, darkest corner of the space between the boxes and the wall. He scrambles with him, panting heavily as they press themselves together tightly, Ethan in front of Gavin protectively as the beast catches up to them, its translucent, shiny head slowly coming into view as it pushes between the gap, sniffing.   
“Oh God, what the hell is that?” It says in Ethan’s voice, making the man back up further against where he’s leaning into Gavin’s chest. It draws itself up onto its hind legs, front arms each on a tower as it scents the air and growls, standing at seven feet now. Gavin and Ethan’s hands find the other and squeeze tightly, their breaths fast and panicked. After a moment, it drops back on all fours and withdraws with a low grumble, heavy footsteps retreating as it resumes its previous patrol through the L-shaped hallway to the right. 

Huddled together, Gavin and Ethan are both shaking. Ethan slowly moves out from in front of Gavin and slumps at his side, leaning in close to his side and holding his hand tight.  
“I— I went the other way—“ he says shakily. “There was— There’s another one down— down the hall, it— It used your voice to call me but I— I knew it wasn’t you, there was no way you got so far ahead so I— I came back but I heard you scream and I thought—,” Ethan’s voice is panicked and shaky, interspersed with moments where he hyperventilates, so Gavin just puts his arm around his shoulders and draws him close, quickly taking his hand again with his other. Gavin shushes him gently and squeezes his hand.  
“It’s alright, we’re alright, Nines.”  
Ethan takes in a sharp breath and leans into the hug, free hand clutching the orange jumpsuit tightly. It takes a minute for him to calm, but when he does, he looks at Gavin with the same look in his eyes that Richard and Niles had in their eyes before dropping the eye contact and making himself stand, helping Gavin up by the arm. Their hands find each other again and their fingers link together. Gavin tells himself it's just so they don’t get separated again, but with the look in Ethan’s eyes even he doesn’t really believe it. They leave the small alcove and poke their heads out to the right, watching the creature turn left down the L-shaped hallway and stalk down the corridor. Gavin pulls Ethan out, the two slowly walking past the other fallen towers and the entrance, waiting for the monster to take another left at the corner, and they quickly push past it and take a right at a pair of large blast doors where Ethan had wandered. It’s another dark hallway that leads to a large room with more crates sorted into two 3x3 sets, and another creature is stalking, and it stops right across from them, only to look around at the slight skid of their footsteps before moving again, mimicking Gavin’s voice and saying “Hello? Who’s there?”  
Gavin and Ethan turn to look at each other in surprise.  
_“It’s blind,”_ Ethan mouths.   
Gavin nods in response and tugs them to the left in the opposite direction where he can see a door over the crates. He swears quietly when the door is closed and there are no buttons nearby. A tug on his sleeve draws his attention to Ethan, who is pointing directly on the other end of the room where the monster is, and to it’s left on the wall is a lever.  
“I’ll go. You stay.” Ethan whispers quietly. It’s a moment of fear that has Gavin gripping Ethan’s jacket, but a little smile and a nod is enough to make him let go. 

He watches as Ethan crouches and makes long, silent strides across the floor like he already knows what parts are going to squeak before he steps. He’s practiced at sneaking around, Gavin’ll give him that. He makes it to the other side and flips the lever down, and the door behind Gavin slides open with a heavy thunk. He sees Ethan smirk and eye the creature making it’s way towards Gavin from the other side and unfastens his studded belt before tossing it back towards him, on the right side of the entrance and making a quick, silent dash back towards Gavin when the beast hisses and quickly turns back to investigate the sound. Ethan and Gavin join hands again and head out through the door and down the newly accessible hallway.

“How’d you get so good at sneaking like that?” Gavin whispers, and Ethan just smirks.  
“I used to sneak outta the foster homes Connor, Conrad, and I were in all the time. It’s not a skill you forget.”  
Gavin huffs a short laugh.  
“Well, shit, bet you got a few good stories.”  
“I’ll tell you as many as you want if we actually—“

“Guys, come on. Stop hiding.” A man’s voice sighs.

That isn’t either of their voices.

Their steps slow as they come to the edge of the hall, and they can see the next elevator just across from them, but Ethan draws his attention to another lever to their left at the corner of the square, and the last long leg of another patrolling creature. Ethan and Gavin share a look before nodding and sliding around the left wall and quietly making their way towards the lever, Gavin sending Ethan ahead just behind the beast as it takes a right around the singular 3x3 set of containers. 

“Where are you?” It says as it takes another right, and Ethan sends Gavin a thumbs up to throw the switch. It clangs heavily as Gavin pulls it down and the creature perks up. “Oh thank god, it’s just somebody else.” It hurries its steps along, but by the time it makes it way to the lever, Gavin and Ethan are already in the elevator, the door sliding shut behind them as their chests heave with relief.

“This had better fucking go somewhere.” Gavin sighs, and beside him Ethan nods in agreement.

Their hands are still locked together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that art of SCP-939 was done by me! I only have two pieces of art I've done for this fic, but if you create something I'd love to see it!


	8. Still Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Angels rising from their little dens, arms swinging, wings aflutter,  
> dropping their white-hot bombs of love.  
> We are not dirty, he keeps saying. We are not dirty...  
> They want you to love the whole damn world but you won't,  
> you want it all narrowed down to one fleshy man in the bath,  
> who knows what to do with his body, with his hands."
> 
> Driving, Not Watching | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from Still Here by Digital Daggers
> 
> "Hidden companion  
> Phantom be still in my heart  
> Make me a promise that  
> Time won't erase us  
> That we were not lost from the start"

The elevator leads them to a long L-shaped hallway with a door on their right and one just ahead of them but Gavin’s navigator, now working again, tells them that the door to their right is a dead end so they just walk through the door at the end of the corridor in front of them. It leads to a T-shaped hallway with another door on their right and one in front of them, and there’s a large patch of black residue on the floor that has Gavin’s chest tightening in a familiar manner. He has a feeling that 106 left it behind - He tells Ethan not to step in it.  
Through the door to the right is a hallway with another Tesla gate that Gavin teaches Ethan how to pass through safely, and then another long hallway with several doors each labeling SCPs contained inside. They decide to explore some and look for anything useful while taking drinks from their water and each munching down on a granola bar, reading through SCP reports of these things. They’re completely inanimate objects and are being literally just kept inside boxes.  
There’s a pill that will cure anything, though it’s missing from its safe, an amulet, also missing, a bright blue key that apparently will transport them into another dimension, a gas mask that will do the same, a book of common diseases and ailments that Ethan and Gavin both decide to leave alone after reading the report, and then one that really catches Gavin’s attention.  
In one of the rooms is a little pine box about the size of a mousepad and inside is a small jade ring. Before picking it up, he grabs the report from on top of a filing cabinet in the room and reads over it. 

Apparently, it’ll shift itself to fit the finger of whoever wears it while also granting its wearer defense against certain memetic effects.

According to everything on the report he just read about this thing, he just can’t leave it here. He just knows that somehow it’s going to come in handy, that he’s going to need it, so he slides it into his pocket and leaves the room. Ethan is back in the main hallway, leaning against the wall as he takes the last few bites of a granola bar, looking tired.

“Hey,” Gavin says, making Ethan slowly look up in acknowledgment, “you alright?”  
In response, Ethan just shrugs.   
“I think I’m going to shift again soon, I can feel it.”  
“You can…feel it coming?”  
Ethan nods.  
“Yeah. It’s like…when you stay up too long and start feeling weird while also on a roller-coaster going through a loop. Or like when you’re up high somewhere and you look down. Like I said earlier, we shift more often when we’re in stressful situations, and I’ve been having a non-stop panic attack since we got separated in the storage area. I'm sorry we didn’t get to spend as much time together as the others.” he says, pushing himself away from the wall with a little stumble, jerking his head towards the door at the end of the hall opposite of where they entered. “C’mon, let’s find somewhere for me to… _To…_ ”

Gavin, now used to this, is quick to catch Ethan when his legs give out, gently lowering him to the floor.

“God fuckin’ dammit, Nines—,” Gavin hisses as he pulls his dead weight along the floor into one of the storage chambers and locking the door shut behind them with a swipe of the keycard, and it slides shut with a hiss and a metallic thunk as it locks. As he settles them down on the floor, Gavin groans. He settles Nines’s head in his lap and leans his head back against the wall, just staring up at the ceiling. “Well, thanks for the heads up, I guess. Asshole.” He breathes. “Wonder who I’m gonna have the pleasure of meeting when you wake up.”

Gavin watches in fascination as Nines changes again. All the make-up and piercings disappear from his face and his hair goes from an in-his-eyes mess to neat and styled, brushed from his face with one lock of unruly hair not quite long enough to stay put, just like Richard and Niles had. Gavin feels a strange sensation in his chest that isn’t entirely unpleasant accompanying this shift. His clothes change too. Gone is the grunge-punk aesthetic, replaced with a rather magnificent looking outfit. He’s in a bright red button-down shirt with a black tie under a charcoal waistcoat, an open black blazer, and a white pea coat, paired with dark grey pants and white Oxfords with a black 2-inch heel. Unlike Niles or Ethan, there’s no scar on his temple, and unlike Richard, there was no LED. The freckles dotting his face look familiar, but they aren’t the same patterns the others had and he can’t tell where he’s seen them before.

It doesn’t take long for 18119 to come to, doing so rather unceremoniously and sort of just…opening his eyes, like he wasn’t really asleep or unconscious, just pretending. The man just blinks up at Gavin, the other having not noticed he was awake yet and just messing around with one of the various stim toys he’d grabbed earlier, this one just a Rubik’s cube. 18119 gets himself a good few moments of staring at Gavin’s face before sitting up, startling Gavin from his focus. He shoves the toy away and helps 18119 lean himself against the wall.

“Hey, don’t freak out, I’m not who you think I am. I mean,” Gavin huffs and rubs at his eyes, “I am but like, I’m not. You’re in the SCP facility, not wherever it is you come from.” He wants to get this out of the way quickly before anything awkward happens as it had with Niles. While he’s busy fumbling over his shitty introduction, 18119 is just looking at him, eyes kind and with a little smile, and normally it’s something that would unnerve Gavin, but this guy has given him a weird vibe since he started shifting. 

“Yes, I’m aware of where I am, thank you, Gavin. I appreciate it. Tell me, how are you?” 18119 asks pleasantly, catching Gavin completely off guard. How…is he? Uh… Well, shit, he can’t say he’s doing well but like, he isn’t dead, so that has to count for something. He tells 18119 as much and just gets a little laugh in response. “Indeed.” A moment passes and 18119 takes a deep breath and says, “My name is Nathaniel, it’s nice to finally meet you here, Gavin. I always wondered what you were like. It strained me so to know that you were in a place as foul as this, to know what they were doing to you. I’m glad to see you unharmed.”

“… _right._ ” Gavin drawls out as he stands. “Well, now that all that’s out of the way, mind if we get goin’? Kinda got places to be and your little naps are a bit time-consuming.” He offers Nathaniel his hand, which the man takes though Gavin can tell he certainly doesn’t need the help. Nathaniel has this sort of air around him, a sense of grace and…dare Gavin call it divinity? He shrugs the thought away when Nathaniel catches him staring and just slides past him to open the door with his keycard, huffing a heavy sigh as he checks his navigator. There’s the small circle indicating Nathaniel’s presence, now labeled SCP-18119-A, and a large circle labeled SCP-049 that’s actually fairly recent but has yet to change in size, so Gavin has a feeling its either far away and isn’t coming any closer or is stationary.

“So,” He says as they take a left out of the storage room and continue down the hall of SCP containment rooms, “tell me about yourself,” Gavin suggests, the two of them emerging into another two-way hallway, this one with three doors; the one they came from, one at the end, and a final one in the middle on the left side. According to Gavin’s navigator, that last one leads to a large room with nowhere else to go from there. He shrugs and takes that left, deciding that it’s best to just check before moving on to the expansive facility through the door at the end. At his suggestion, Nathaniel smiles and begins to speak.

“How kind of you to ask.” He says. “Well, I suppose I’ll start by saying that I am an angel—,”  
Gavin coughs when he chokes on his spit, hacking up a lung into his elbow while Nathanial pats his back in concern.  
“Oh dear, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shock you. I felt it best that you knew immediately rather than—,”  
“Nope- shut the fuck up.” Gavin wheezes, wrenching his way out from under Nathaniel’s hand and into the newly opened doorway that leads to a set of stairs. Nathaniel, a bit affronted, simply takes a deep breath and follows him into the room with a mumbled, “Very well, then.”

Up the stairs and to the left is a hub of black consoles, and just to the left of them is another open room, a booth with monitors stuck to the wall in front of a large control console with two rolling desk chairs that have been overturned and now lay on the floor. To the right of that is another computer hub. There’s another door in the main room, but Gavin can’t find a button to push to open it and there’s nowhere to swipe a keycard, so he just shrugs and leaves it be.  
“Must be the surveillance room Richard told me about.” Gavin sighs, and groans in frustration when none of the computer screens in the main room turn on and just turns his attention to where Nathaniel is standing in front of the control console looking at the mounted monitors in the other room to the left.  
“They’re feeds from surveillance cameras.” He explains when Gavin enters as if he couldn’t gather that himself, but Gavin doesn’t recall ever actually seeing a camera anywhere.  
“Well, see anything interesting?” Gavin asks, only to get a shake of the head from Nathaniel. He sighs and goes about his exploration. On the computer hub to the right side of the room, there are two levers, one labeled for the lockdown on the Light Containment Zone and one for the Heavy Containment Zone, though that lever has actually been snapped off. Well, a lockdown can’t mean anything good, and Gavin recalls Richard saying that the foundation would likely do this to keep things where they belonged and that they would need to do something about it. A lockdown was keeping them from accessing Heavy Containment, which is where Richard said they needed to go to access to Entrance Zone where the exits were, so Gavin simply flips the switch to OFF.

“Gavin,” Nathaniel suddenly calls out to him, “come here.”  
Nathaniel, when Gavin turns around, is staring at the entrance to the room, and it’s like something is compelling him to walk towards the SCP. He grabs onto Gavin’s arm and pulls the man close, shuffling him behind his broad back as if hiding him.   
“Hey, what the fuck— I don’t like being manhandled, jackass!”  
“Stay behind me, and put on that ring you took. Now.”  
Again, Gavin finds himself following Nathaniel’s whims, feet firmly planted in place while his hand slides into his pocket and he grasps the jade ring between his fingers, easily sliding it on. The moment he does, he suddenly feels incredibly worn out, like he’s just pulled a train. It’s like a strange fog has fallen over his mind and made his thoughts thick and slow, none of them making sense. It’s nothing like being drunk or high, but his train of thought doesn’t last long enough to continue worrying about it. From behind Nathaniel’s back, Gavin peeks out just in time to see a strange man enter the other room. He’s wearing a long black robe with the hood up and a strange bird-like mask that Gavin just cannot place the familiarity of. Whatever this ring is doing to him, he does not like it. He thinks for a moment to take it off, but a thought enters his head in a voice that isn’t his own that tells him not to, and again, Gavin finds himself unable to resist. He can’t even place who the voice belongs to, but he knows he knows it. The man in black notices Nathaniel and approaches, and when he enters the room he greets the other SCP with a happy voice, tinny and echoed as it may be behind his mask.

“Ah, Nathaniel, was it? How wonderful to see you again.” The man says, tilting his head politely.  
“049,” Nathaniel says back. “What are you doing here?”  
This other person, SCP-049, just sighs behind his mask. “Unfortunately, a doctor’s work is never done.” He gestures to the surveillance monitors behind Nathaniel. “It’s worse than I thought. Like wildfire, it spreads. Ah,” 049 starts, “but you’ve heard it all from me before. Tell me, have you located him? Your dear one? You spoke so reverently of him last we spoke I couldn’t help but think of you and hope for your success.”  
In front of him, Nathaniel straightens some, taking a slightly more defensive stance. 049 leans to the right as he sees Gavin’s face for only a moment, and in the brief second that their eyes meet it’s like 049…changes. He deflates and something in his eyes seems to darken.  
“Oh my… Another victim of the disease.” He sighs, then looks at Nathaniel once more. “I’m sorry, my friend, but your companion is infected with the pestilence. You must allow me to treat him.”  
Whatever he means, Nathaniel must not like it because he reaches behind himself and takes Gavin’s hand in his own, squeezing tight.  
“Unfortunately, I’ll have to refuse.”  
The other SCP sighs heavily. “Come now, Nathaniel, you know I must, I am the only one who can. I must get to work before it continues to spread.” He steps forward and tries to shove past Nathaniel to try and grab at Gavin, his black glove nearly scraping his tanned skin before a sudden force bursts out and 049 is flying across the room and out the doorway, hitting the wall in the other room with a loud crash, and Gavin just blinks hazily. There are cracks in the wall where 049 collided with it. Nathaniel quickly turns around and yanks the ring free of Gavin’s finger, and the man takes a deep, heavy gasp of air like he’d been struggling for it before. Everything clouding his mind from before is gone like it had never been there to begin with.  
 _“What—,”_ he gasps.  
“I’ll explain later, but we have to go now before he recovers,” Nathaniel says quickly, taking Gavin’s hand again and gripping tight as he leads Gavin out of the surveillance room. As they pass by 049 on the ground, Gavin hears a groan from him before Nathaniel rushes him down the stairs and out of the room. He swipes a keycard through the reader, though Gavin doesn’t recall giving it to him and he’s the one carrying the bag with the other card still tucked away where Richard had put it all those hours ago. With the door locked, Gavin finds himself pulled through door after door and hallway after hallway until Nathaniel finally deems it fit to stop, and the man finds himself nearly collapsing against the wall as his chest heaves, thighs and calves trembling as he rests his hands on his knees.  
 _“What—,”_ Gavin pants, “what the _fuck_ was that??”  
Nathaniel sighs and crosses his arms.  
“Another SCP, 049. I met him during our containment. We were put into testing together to see how we would—,”  
“Not that! How did you do that!? How did you push him away like that, how did you make me do those things!? How did you know I had that ring??” Gavin demands, only to get an irritated glare in response.  
“If you’d allowed me to continue your question from earlier, you would know. I told you, Gavin, I’m an angel. Few things in the universe can actually cause me harm. Anything that could kill a human would certainly end the biological functions of my vessel if I sustained enough damage and failed to heal myself, but I will continue to exist.” Nathaniel explains, not at all surprised by the look of disbelief on the human’s face. Well, he didn’t actually expect Gavin to believe him. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but as I said earlier, you should know the truth. As long as I am around, nothing will harm you because I simply will not allow it.”  
Gavin glares and stands up straight again, leveling Nathaniel with a look the angel is all too familiar with. He simply raises a bored eyebrow and waits for Gavin to say something stupid, but he just deflates instead and turns to face the wall, hitting his forehead against it a few times in frustration.  
“Of fucking course you are, why wouldn’t you be?” He sighs.  
Slightly concerned, Nathaniel tilts his head and leans forward some.   
“…Gavin?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Are you…alright?”  
“Fucking peachy, Nines.”  
The familiar nickname makes Nathaniel smile a little and he nods. Yeah, Gavin’s alright. He just needs a moment.  
“Then would you like me to continue telling you of the entity you just met, as well as the ring you wore in its presence?”  
“You read my mind,” Gavin groans sarcastically, finally turning around and leaning against the wall as he pulls his navigator from his pocket and tries to figure out where they are. He has no idea how to get to the Heavy Containment checkpoint, but they’ve found everything they needed to by blindly wandering anyway so he guesses it’s not a problem. “Go on.” He says as he starts walking despite the fatigue stilling plaguing his body, Nathaniel faithfully at his heels like he has his own fucking pedigree.  
“Very well. Now, that man was SCP-049, and as you saw he wears the garb of a plague doctor from those times, but don’t be mistaken by his calm words and harmless appearance, he is more dangerous than you would think. He has this…obsession with something he calls the pestilence, as you heard him claim you to be sick with, and sees it as his mission to find a cure for it. 049’s cure for this sickness, however, causes death and subsequent reanimation upon a strange surgery procedure he performs on the corpses. The researchers were curious as to how he would react to me after he expressed interest in Richard, and they were surprised to see that 049 seemed to recognize just what I was upon our first meeting without me telling him so. He was fascinated by my existence and inability to carry the pestilence.”  
Gavin side-eyes him. What the fuck is this “pestilence” this guy’s talking about? Gavin isn’t sick.  
“So, what, you guys BFFs or something?”  
“Oh, far from it,” Nathaniel says. “He kills innocent people, Gavin, I can’t abide by that. I simply understood what he meant when he spoke of this disease. He told me that he had seen something horrible that swept over his home and turned his people to ash, a suffering without end. He said that so many turned their eyes and did nothing, that the sick cried out for help and they were abandoned, and that fear overcame empathy. His people rotted and died, and when he himself tried to step up and help them he was punished for it. And now he sees another pestilence in the world, a scourge on mankind that was the cause of the death of his people that he claims is abundant in humanity today in such strength that he is amazed others do not see it as he does. As _we_ do.”  
Gavin looks at Nathaniel with confusion written all over his face.  
“Wait, so he’s…literally a plague doctor. That would make him…” Gavin quickly glances down at his hands and mumbles numbers to himself, dropping fingers as he goes, “almost seven hundred years old!”  
“Indeed. However, I believe he is a culmination of the despair of his people who were abandoned and left for dead, something created out of grief and despair and hatred and fear. He is a real man but was…changed by something. This pestilence he insists you are sick with is indeed a plague, as is most of humanity, but it is nothing that can truly be cured, least of all by 049’s methods.”  
“…what is it?” Gavin asks, and Nathaniel sighs as he steps through an open door.  
“Apathy.” He says, bowing his head some in what appears to be sadness. “The researchers and doctors here made the mistake of taking him at his word when he called it a disease, thinking it was a virus or some sort of biological infection. The pestilence 049 speaks of was never the sickness that bore his existence, but it is simply human nature.”

There’s a thick silence between them now, just the sounds of their footsteps clicking on the tile as they walk. Well, that’s heavy, Gavin thinks, if not a little edgy. It makes sense though, and Gavin supposes he understands where he’s coming from. He thinks of the ring again and pulls it from his pocket, rolling it between his fingers and thumb. It’s an unassuming little thing, yet apparently had truly come in handy just like Gavin had thought it would, though he doesn’t know why.

“And this?” He asks, holding it up. Nathaniel nods.  
“Yes, the ring. You read the report for it, did you not? Then you know the protections it grants its wearer from various memetic effects, including chemical resistance, which is why I told you to put it on in the presence of 049. I did not wish for you to fall victim to whatever deadly chemical he uses to render his test subjects…deceased. However, as you must have also noticed, that ring does not work on me, as do several other SCPs they tested me with. I can bypass 714’s “mental shield”, 049 cannot “cure” me, as I am incapable of carrying his pestilence, 106 cannot bring me to his dimension, 035 cannot possess me, 895 has no effect, neither 008 nor 1025 infects me, I am not compelled by 012, and if I were to touch 1123, I would not see the memories of another, as I have never been human. I knew you had it because I was the one who reached through our worlds and made you take it.”  
Gavin is just staring at him now, eyebrows drawn together.   
“So you…you’re really an angel, huh?”  
“Yes, Gavin.”  
“And you…you know me, right? Like, you all know me. Some version of me.”  
“Yes. In the world I come from, I am your angel, Gavin.” Nathaniel says. “It is a long and complicated story, but I came to Earth some years ago and hid among humanity, posing as one of you while working my way into the police department where you worked. You were reckless, always getting yourself hurt, and there was only so much I could do from my post to keep you safe, so I… I decided that I would be more effective at my mission if I were there to physically stop you from putting yourself in those dangerous situations. I was successful. Much more happened, but it is nothing for you to worry about. Just know that I will not allow you to come to harm, and nothing will be able to hurt you as long as I am here.”  
A cold rush of hair blows past Gavin, through him, almost, and despite its chill, he feels strangely warm inside and thinks he hears the sounds of rustling leaves.   
“Uh, yeah. Sure. Just, uh, don’t fuckin’ baby me, alright? I’m a grown-ass man, I can take care of myself Nines.” He says, then hums. “Hey, so why do you get called Nines, huh?”  
Nathaniel smiles.  
“I have nine sets of wings, and it’s what you call me because of that. Maybe you’ll be able to see them for yourself should the need arise.”

The checkpoint they come to is ominous as fuck, if Gavin were to describe it somehow. There’s a monitor blinking between two heavy doors warning of a containment system failure for SCP-008, but that the lockdown on the Light Containment Zone is lifted. The lighting is dim, likely just the emergency lights that give the area a faintly red hue. There’s a large viewing window where Gavin can see into an observation room, but what he sees in that room is enough to make him pause. There’s a teddy bear standing on the table jumping around and dancing like it's trying to get their attention, and when Gavin and Nathaniel both look at it, the bear stops jumping and instead waves at them eagerly, and while Nathaniel offers the thing a smile, Gavin just stares at it a moment. It isn’t until Nathaniel elbows him in the side and tells him not to be rude that he lifts his arm and waves awkwardly at the bear. Seemingly satisfied, it jumps down from the table to do…whatever it is it’s going to do.

“That…that was the uh, the teddy bear one. I think. I— I read about it earlier. Apparently it makes replicas of itself but like, for some reason that one is the only one that doesn’t have a hard-on for killing shit. At least, I think it was that one. It wasn’t made of ears or rusted metal or, uh, y’know. Dead…baby parts. Uhm.” He shudders and shakes his head to rid his mind of the imagery conjured by that and just grabs his keycard from his pocket and swipes it through the reader, and with a loud, shrill alarm, the doors leading into the Heavy Containment area hiss open.

It’s real fuckin’ dark in here. That’s the only way Gavin can describe this place, mostly because he literally can’t fucking see. He can see enough that he knows he isn’t going to immediately run into anything, but his vision only extends about 10 feet or so before its all just blackness and indiscernible shapes. The hallways in the Heavy Containment area are metal corridors instead of the off-white tile in Light Containment, and they’re cylindrical in shape and lined with horizontal cement blocks, coated in a brownish dirty metal, and the floor beneath them consists of grated metal tiles. Every step they take echoes with loud clinks, and it’s enough to make Gavin paranoid. Anything and everything is going to hear them, no matter how lightly they tread.   
“Don’t suppose you know what’s kept on this side of the facility, do ya?” He asks, only for Nathaniel to hum.  
“Well…” he drawls hesitantly, “I am.”  
“Wait, what?” Gavin turns his head to face him. “No, you’re in Light Containment, I was in your containment chamber when all this shit went down, Nines.”  
“Richard, Niles, Ethan, Nine-Hundred, and Kieran are kept in Light Containment. I used to be as well, but my personal containment procedures are a bit more extensive now. I had an…incident. I’d rather not speak of it. As a consequence, when I am here I am moved to a unit in Heavy Containment.”

Gavin remembers Richard saying something about that; Nathaniel losing his temper during testing with a Class—D and subsequently killing them. He decides not to tell the angel that he knows about it. 

The two-way corridor is dark, just like everything else in this place. It makes Gavin wonder how in the hell anyone working was supposed to ever see anything. It gives Gavin this general feeling of anxiety, dread in his chest he just can’t get rid of, settling right at home like a frozen rock. Every clink of their steps, every scrape of their shoes, and every fumbled step in the dark against the metal tiles makes him jump. He’s even trying not to breathe lest he make too much noise and something overhears him.   
He nearly screams when the lights go out and Nathaniel suddenly grabs his wrist and tugs him back from where he was about to step, and the only reason he doesn’t is because the fucker is covering his mouth as he tucks Gavin to his chest, eyes looking upward. Gavin finally stops his scrambling when he hears what caused the angel to stop. There’s a thumping sound from the vent above them, followed by some kind of scraping noise. One that Gavin recognizes.

He forces himself to keep his eyes open when the shaft cover above them breaks and clatters to the floor, the statue from before, somehow managing to slide itself through the ventilation system, now dropping down in front of them with a heavy thud, nearly face to face with them just as the lights flicker back on. Gavin takes slow but heavy breaths as he pulls Nathaniel’s hand from his mouth and grips it tight, slowly pulling them around the side of the statue.  
 _“Don’t look away from it, don’t blink, don’t blink, don’t blink…”_ Gavin mutters to himself as he and Nathaniel walk backward toward the other end of the corridor, the door hissing open as he presses the button and sliding shut again once they’re on the other side. He takes his keycard from his pocket and slides it through, locking it with a beep. If that thing can travel through the ducts then locking the doors behind them isn’t gonna help much, but it sure as hell makes Gavin feel better. Now out of sight of the thing, Gavin takes a moment to look at his navigator, watching with mounting relief as the tiny circle indicating SCP-173’s presence gets larger as they move away from it, then it simply plips right off the map as if it were never there to begin with accompanied by the telltale sound of metal scraping together.

“Alright,” Gavin sighs, “so 173 just goes and does whatever the hell it wants and can go anywhere. Fuckin’ awesome.”  
At his side, Nathaniel is looking unbothered at what just occurred, putting his attention instead on his and Gavin’s hands still together, staring at the union with silver eyes that seem otherworldly in this darkness, like it wasn’t even touching them. It’s almost like they’re glowing somehow. Momentarily stunned by the ethereal grace to Nathaniel’s eyes, he shakes himself free of it and pulls his hand away, shoving it in his pocket with an awkward cough.  
“Come on,” he huffs, “let’s get a fuckin’ move on. Place gives me the fuckin’ creeps, I hate this shit.” Gavin mumbles as he just continues on forward. Behind him, Nathaniel just stares, just for a moment, before a fond smile Gavin doesn’t see spreads across his face and he follows the human’s lead. If Gavin hears the sound of leaves in the wind, even down here, he ignores it. Hallways after hallway, one corner and T-shaped corridor after four-way intersection with nothing to hear but their own footsteps and breathing, Nathaniel seems to get a little antsy with the silence.  
The Gavin he knows is never quiet about anything.

“…might I inquire as to what you’re searching for? I am contained here, Gavin, I’m sure I could provide some sort of assistance.”   
Gavin exhales heavily and rubs the back of his neck, muscles tense with stress.  
“I dunno Nines, some fuckin’ way out of here. It’s dark as shit and I can’t fucking see anything and I really have no idea where I’m taking us.”  
Nathaniel hums in thought before saying, “There is a small server room in this area. If we were to access it, we could restore power to this area and turn the lights on and get the elevators working again. Not much power since it will be pulling from a generator, but enough to get by.”

It’s a better plan that Gavin had, meaning it was any plan at all.

Gavin’s navigator is glitching in here, so he simply prays that something won’t get the jump on them while he lets Nathaniel take the lead. It’s strange that he knows the way around down here without a map, but being an angel must mean he just has knowledge of this sort of stuff innately. God, he doesn’t wanna think about that. Nathaniel’s a literal fucking angel. _Holy shit._  
It’s still wicked dark down here, so Nathaniel better not mind that Gavin is holding onto his peacoat for guidance in the near pitch-blackness of these halls. One hiss of a door after another leads them to a short hallway with grafting going down the length of the floor and ceiling, and hardly three feet inside the room Gavin feels a horrible dread fill his chest like he’d just placed an icepack on his bare skin. He knows this feeling, he doesn’t think it’s something he’ll ever forget. A deep, ugly, sinister laugh echoes around them, and he immediately starts to back up, but Nathaniel reaches back and grabs hold of his hand. There’s no getting out of the angel’s grasp no matter how hard Gavin tugs, and if he could find it in him to speak through his fear then he’d tell Nathaniel that he’s hurting him. He can only watch in panic as the creature from before, SCP-106, slowly emerges from the wall, dripping it’s strange black sludge as it goes. Halfway across the hall, it stops and turns with a rictus grin and Gavin’s heart feels like it’s about to stop. Its’ eyes bore right through him, and he just knows this thing is plotting some sort of revenge for that stunt he pulled with the Tesla gate, but then it simply moves on to the other side of the hallway and disappears through the opposite wall. 

His chest rapidly rising and falling, Gavin’s eyes are locked on the spot where 106 disappeared.   
“What—,” Gavin breathes, flicking his eyes back and forth between the wall and Nathaniel, who is standing stock-still in the middle of the hallway. Even though 106 is gone, Gavin still feels something horrid in the room and feels that fear of Nathaniel increase again when he realized that what he’s feeling is the angel himself.  
“N—Nines, Nines, lemme go— Fuck, you’re— You’re h—hurting me—!”  
Nathaniel immediately releases Gavin’s wrist, turning to face him with regret all over his face.  
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry Gavin, I didn’t mean to—,”  
Gavin waves him off as he rubs his sore wrist, biting his lip and hissing. Nathaniel, frowning, reaches out and offers his hand with his eyebrows upturned pleadingly.   
“Please, allow me to remedy what I’ve done.”  
Gavin is apprehensive but offers his arm to Nathaniel. It’s already starting to bruise, and Gavin winces when Nathaniel runs his fingers over the redness. The angel takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, lightly ghosting his palm over the injury. It’s…warm. He hears that sound again, like leaves in a breeze, and Nathaniel releases his hand, his eyes opening again. Gavin slowly takes his hand from Nathaniel’s and frowns in confusion. The hand-shaped bruising around his wrist was gone, and even the constant popping was gone when it rotated it a few times.   
“What did you…”  
“I healed you,” Nathaniel explains. “I… I harmed you, Gavin, something I’ve vowed to never do ever again. Please, forgive me.”  
Gavin rubs at his wrist and sighs, eyes flicking back to the spot on the walls where 106 had left its marks.  
“It’s… It’s fine.”  
“I…also remedied your joint damage. It was causing you pain.”  
How Nathaniel knew that, Gavin could only guess, but he appreciates it. He thanks him, then glares.  
“So, what the fuck was that about, eh?”  
The angel glances over his shoulder, face hardening.  
“Even a creature like SCP-106 knows better than to cross an entity like me.” His eyes return to the human. “It’s my job to protect you, Gavin. I told you, as long as I’m here nothing is going to hurt you.”

  
“What did you mean, _again?”_ Gavin asks after a long and uncomfortable silence. They've since moved on from the grated hallway and are heading in god-knows-what direction, but Nathaniel at least seems confident in his directions so Gavin supposes he trusts the angel. Not like he really has a choice. In front of him, Nathaniel sighs before glancing over his shoulder as he continues walking.  
“It’s a rather long story…”  
“And our schedule is just too packed with walking through identical doors and hallways, I get it.”  
“Very well, since you asked.”  
Nathaniel takes a deep breath and is quiet for a few more moments before speaking again.

“As you know, I am an angel. Specifically, your angel. _My_ Gavin’s guardian angel. He endured such horrible trauma and abuse as a child and teenager, it was all I could do just to keep him from dying. Either by his own or other’s hands. There isn’t much I could really do without being punished, but I would give him a sudden burst of courage to punch a schoolyard bully, I would make his father fall asleep a little earlier so he could avoid a drunken beating, I would make sure there was a spare couple dollars in a pair of pants or a jacket or in his car so he could feed himself or take a bus somewhere to get away from home, and as he got older it started being funds for his surgeries and hormones. Then he became an officer and I… I was terrified. Gavin was reckless, bull-headed, he’d rush into things impulsively without thinking about the consequences. He got shot during a chase, but I saw it coming and was able to slightly alter the bullet’s flight path. He would have died that day if I hadn’t.”  
Nathaniel takes them through a door on the left after stopping for a minute to collect his thoughts.  
“I knew I had to do more for him, but Heaven is such a fickle place, Gavin, and deviating from your job is not something taken very likely by those overseeing the natural order of things. I decided I didn’t care. Gavin was more important to me than anyone else had ever been, he was worth whatever consequences came my way. I fell from Heaven and a few days later I arrived at the precinct and was assigned his partner. He didn’t care for me much, but over time he learned to like me. We grew quite close over the years. Then… Then the revolution came. I’d always known there were other “deviant” angels in the city, but they weren’t hurting anybody, they were just trying to live, but suddenly my brother Connor shows up one day in a human vessel nearly identical to my own and becomes the new partner of the human he was supposed to watch over. I thought that perhaps he was on Earth for the same reasons I was, but then everything just spiraled so out of control. Markus revealed himself, he started a revolution against Heaven, and the “deviant hunter” they’d sent to put us in our proper places... That hunter turned about to be Connor. It was his punishment for wanting to keep his human alive; hunting his own people down and killing them. He was tasked with finding their hideout and taking out their leaders. He didn’t want to, of course, and did everything he could to delay it and keep them safe for just a little while longer… When the American government became involved and the military was ordered to join in this hunt and slaughter, Gavin still had a job to do. He was just doing his job trying to keep people safe and everything he’d been told lead him to believe these deviants were dangerous. It… I…”  
Nathaniel pauses again, eyes glancing to Gavin to gauge his reaction to his story so far, but was rather relieved to find the human paying rapt attention and hanging on every word. It gives him the confidence to continue.  
“Gavin ended up separated from his squad and a group of rather upset angels cornered him. They were scared and angry and just wanted to live in peace but the humans were so unaccepting of something so many preached to believe in and yet when faced with the reality of our existence they didn’t handle it well. We, or rather our vessels, were being slaughtered in the streets, hunted down like rats and killed without mercy. They were right to be angry, but not at Gavin. He hadn’t done anything, he didn’t even believe in God or angels until then. He was actually deliberately avoiding harming them and left those he found in hiding be. I don’t even remember doing it, honestly, even now, but one moment I’m on a nearby roof watching over the scene and the next thing I knew I was in front of him, my wings fully outstretched and blocking him from the eyes of the other angels, protecting him from them as he protected so many others. They said he had to pay for what the humans had done to us but I simply wouldn’t allow it. Gavin wasn’t what they thought he was, they were so misguided by their fear… They called me a traitor for taking the side of the humans and attempted to attack me as well. I bested them, but not before Gavin had already seen the worst of me. It was…a horrid sight, I imagine. When it was done and he was safe, he was so scared of me, of what I was, of what I could potentially do.”  
Nathaniel deflates and runs his hand through his hair. It’s upsetting to remember, and he has to live with his perfect recall of memory every day. At his side, Gavin is still listening. He hasn’t said anything and still doesn’t, but the hand grasping Nathaniel’s white peacoat slowly falls to take his hand instead, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Nathaniel squeezes back.  
“He asked how I could do this to him, how I could suck up to him for years, pretending we were friends, pretending that I cared, pretending that I never had some kind of ulterior motive. He said that he…he trusted me. I knew how much honestly and trust meant to him and yet I still never said anything, even though he—," Nathaniel stops and takes a deep breath, and if Gavin could see in the darkness down here he’d notice the angel rubbing his thumb over a black titanium ring on his left ring finger before he speaks again.  
“Lying to him like that, hiding my true identity after all we’d been through together, it hurt him more than anything else he’d ever been through in his life. I promised after that that I’d never do anything ever again that would harm him, no matter what. Total honestly, never a single secret between us.”

Nathaniel isn’t expecting Gavin to really have a response to his story. It was quite a bit to take in at once, but it feels good to tell someone about it. He’d told the researchers here a bit, but they didn’t deserve the whole story. Nathaniel feels cold guilt taking root in his chest that not even Gavin is getting the full story, even after saying he’d made a promise to never keep anything from him. But, this wasn’t _his_ Gavin, and that promise was not extended to him. The human at his side just keeps holding his hand which honestly means more than Nathaniel thinks he could ever truly express. Gavin isn’t afraid of him, at least not so afraid that he’d refuse to let the angel be near him.

“…he means a lot to you, then, if you’re so torn up about even hurting another reality version of him on accident. I think he’d appreciate that.” Gavin says eventually, voice quiet.  
Nathaniel smiles.  
“Indeed.”  
“Does he, y’know, know? About this whole…dimension-hopping shit?”  
“In a way,” Nathaniel says with a little shrug. “I told him and explained it the best I could that there was another Gavin in another universe who needed me. It took him quite a bit of time to accept I wasn’t joking.”  
“Eh? Wait, you knew I was here? How?”  
“I… Doctor Keoni asked me during my first interview if the name Gavin Reed meant anything to me, and after my rather…dramatic reaction to that question, I began to suspect that you were here somewhere. They would not have asked me otherwise.”  
“Your doppelgängers could have said something about me.”  
“Yes, but I could feel you. Your pain and fear. I even—," Nathaniel quickly shuts his mouth and lets out a slow, deep breath. “I have done many things in this place that I am not proud of Gavin, just know that for you it was worth it all and I will never think otherwise.”

…

Gavin is going to pretend that isn’t ominous and suspicious as all hell, instead choosing to let the subject drop and let their travel through the series of eerie hallways continue, their hands still clenched together tightly. Gavin tells himself it’s just easier and makes him feel less like a little kid clinging to their mom’s skirt in a grocery store, but he doesn’t believe it. Something about just being around this guy, around every 18119 he’s met just…settles something in him that he doesn’t want to think about. Not now, not in this place. Survival first, deep internal reflection later.

They enter a room with a y-shaped walkway and low-level white lights with two gas tanks an unreachable distance from the guard rails that are spewing black decontamination gas into the room, though its range doesn’t reach the catwalk and instead gets sucked into the air vents above them. Nearby, on top of one of the gas canisters sits something that immediately makes Gavin’s entire body flush with rage, and he lets go of Nathaniel’s hand to stomp up to the guardrail and glare at the thing. Curious as to what has drawn his companion’s ire, Nathaniel follows, only to see Gavin staring in pure contempt at…a small rubber duck holding a saxophone.

“Hey there Duckie, you still being a son of a bitch?” He asks, flicking it on the head. “Yeah, bet you are you sack of shit...” He grumbles before turning away. The duck, in response, only plays an off-tune squeaky melody that causes Gavin to quickly turn around and grasp the toy in a tight fist before reeling back and throwing it across the other side of the room like a baseball with a shouted _"yeet!"_. It hits the wall with a pathetic squeak and drops into the darkness below _._

Nathaniel is utterly lost.

“Um… Gavin?”  
“What?”  
“What was…” Nathaniel looks back to where the rubber duck had hit the wall and fallen, then back to Gavin, eyebrows drawn up in pure confusion.  
“Bastard fucking jump-scared me first time I saw it and I dunno if you noticed but I hold onto grudges like a goddamn lifeline simply out of spite. So I launched that little shit into the fucking abyss.” He says with a triumphant smirk before nudging Nathaniel in the side and linking their arms. “On we go.”


	9. Mortal Gods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Let's not talk about it, let's just not talk.  
> Not because I don't believe it, not because I want it any different, but I'm always saving and you're always owing and I’m tired of asking to settle the debt."  
> \- Richard Siken | “Wishbone” & “Planet of Love” 
> 
> \---  
> "Together we trace out a trail away from doom. There isn't hope, there is a trail. I follow you."  
> \- Richard Siken | War of The Foxes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> are you guys ready for more Nathaniel?? hell yeah! featuring a special surprise at the end! oooh what could it be
> 
> title from Mortal Gods by Matt Foundling, Stuart Roslyn, and Audiomachine

Gavin still thinks Mr. Long Arms is probably one of the scariest motherfuckers in this place, second only to the Old Man. SCP-096 is haunting enough to look at even without seeing its face, but just the sounds it makes, the sounds its victims make when it tears through them like tissue paper and does…God knows what to them will undoubtedly haunt Gavin’s nightmares for years to come if he and Nines actually manage to make it out of this place. 

SCP-096 is inside the small server room they need to enter, and Gavin can only watch again as some other poor bastard is torn to shreds, blood splattering the window and he bows over, covering his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut. Nathaniel’s eyes are not helplessly locked on the gruesome scene they witnessed, rather on Gavin and he knows the angel is watching him. Even when he’s facing a completely different direction he can feel Nathaniel’s gaze on him somehow. He always seems to know when Gavin’s found something interesting or has started wandering just a little too far for comfort, and his speed when called upon is uncanny. Right now, even though Nathaniel is just standing next to him, Gavin can somehow feel something soft and warm draped around him like a blanket, but when he reaches to feel, there’s nothing. Only the sound of leaves in the wind.

“You know,” Nathaniel starts, lifting his eyes from Gavin to look through the window where SCP-096 is still doing its thing with the corpse of the security guard, “SCP-096 has been approved for termination, should a way be found. It’s rather unfortunate they did not seek my assistance in this matter. I suppose they feared it could kill me and were afraid of the consequences of having the death of an angel on their hands, which is valid I suppose, but misplaced. There is nothing in this world or any other that could truly end my life except for a very special weapon wielded by my sister. If they asked, I would have gladly killed that creature. Not for them, but for it. It’s suffering and I hate to see it in such misery. ”

Nothing Gavin really needs to hear, but Nathaniel’s words soothe him anyway. He takes a few deep breaths to calm his nausea and looks at his companion.  
“…sister?”  
“Azrael. Her name is not well known amongst more common religious teachings, but humans still know her by her purpose; she is Death.”  
“…so, only Death can kill an angel?”  
Nathaniel nods.  
“That is why I am technically immortal. This vessel could…expire, though it would take quite a deal more to do so given my abilities, but I would live on until another vessel that could contain me is located. I would still exist, just not be corporeal.”

Gavin hums. It’s a bit beyond his understanding, but he’ll just nod and agree anyway as if he does. The entire time he’s been speaking, the angel has been scanning the inside of the small server room. He can see the entrance to the control area in the back of the room, as well as the control panel inside with a power feed switch.

“Gavin,” Nathaniel says, and Gavin suddenly feels a familiar fuzziness fall over him, reminding him somewhat of a nicotine buzz. His limbs feel heavy and tingly and his head is light as air. He feels relaxed. “Go sit in the corner and face it. Tuck your head down as far as you can and do not move. Do not lift your head until I retrieve you, do you understand?”  
Beyond his own control, Gavin finds himself feeling like he’s walking in a dream as he approaches a nearby corner and crouches down, Nathaniel’s guiding hand on his shoulder as he tucks his head down between his knees, chin to his chest like a child. Something that isn’t fingers graces his hair and ruffles it just a little, then he hears Nathaniel’s footsteps leave him behind.

SCP-096, the horrid creature, is patrolling the room now with blood-tipped hands dragging the floor and leaving skids on the ground as it cries. Nathaniel has little fear of it, and could dispatch it with a bit of a fight between them, but decides against it. These people want to contain creatures they don’t fully understand, then they can deal with the consequences. He sticks to the wall and avoids looking at SCP-096, making his way to the control area in the back. The switch inside is set to ‘Main’, yet the equipment is damaged, undoubtedly from when SCP-096 killed the guard with the way it swings its hands so haphazardly. As a result, its supply of power has been cut off from the main facility so Nathaniel flicks the switch from ‘Main’ to ‘Generator’, causing a low hum to vibrate through the room and the lights flicker back on, the doors hissing open as well. SCP-096 is still wandering the room when Nathaniel returns to Gavin’s, his fingers just barely grazing across his shoulders. He helps the dazed human to stand and maneuvers him behind his back before guiding him through the room and out the other side to leave SCP-096 to its own devices. It would be better for everyone if he were to simply kill it…but no. After what these people did to him, did to Gavin, they’ll have to find another way to dispatch the creature.

Once out of the room, Nathaniel smiles and brushes Gavin’s hair from his face and removes his influence over the man. He feels bad for compelling him this way, but its the only way he can guarantee his safety. Gavin slowly comes back to himself and holds his head in his hands, feeling woozy and out of breath.

“God fuckin…” he groans. “Why do you do that shit to me, huh? I’d stay put if you just asked.”  
“Forgive me, Gavin, but I’m merely being cautious. How else can I guarantee your innate animalistic curiosity won’t get the best of you and compel you to peek?”  
“You could trust me when I tell you the last thing I’m gonna fucking do is look at bootleg Slenderman. I told you not to baby me, Nines.”  
Nathaniel tilts his head, eyebrows drawn up in consideration before he sighs, bowing his head and closing his eyes.  
“You’re right. I’m sorry, I do trust you.”  
Gavin sighs and just flicks Nathaniel’s forehead. The angel blinks several times as he looks down at Gavin, who he expected to actually be angry but instead is just giving him a sardonic smile.  
“Then fuckin’ act like it, angel. I’m not gonna go stickin’ forks in the first light socket I see just cause you aren’t watchin’ me. We’re partners, ain’t we?”

He’s caught off guard by the nickname for just a moment, reliving his memories of the last few years. Gavin has no idea what such a name truly means to him, probably didn’t even think twice about using it, it was just something natural.

_“You said you’d never lie to me, angel! I thought I could trust you!”_

_“Angel! Angel, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—,”_

_“See you at home, angel.”_

_“I love you, angel.”_

_“Angel, will you m—,”_

“Nines?”

“Yes… Y-yes, we… We’re partners.”

Not that Gavin feels 100% on board with Nathaniel’s eerie presence and the sensations that come with having a being like him around, but he isn’t all bad. He’s just…weird. Being what he is, Nathaniel knows things that Gavin doesn’t and that’s alright, but it’s when he seemingly brings up things Gavin’s only thought about that it’s a bit weird. It shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that the angel is some kind of a mind-reader, but Gavin wishes his private thoughts could stay that way. Nathaniel catches himself most of the time and even tries explaining that it isn’t something he can really help, but Gavin just sighs and says it’s fine. It’s not, but he’s not about to argue with a literal fucking angel about what it can and can’t do.  
An angel is a pretty nice security system though. It’s aware of threats that Gavin doesn’t perceive or wouldn’t until it was too late and keeps them safe from whatever it may be. He even takes the initiative to enter the containment chamber that, when Gavin reads the report kept in the observation room, turns out to be a zombie virus of some kind, and Nathaniel just walks into its room without worry and shuts the containment receptacle. Gavin is too busy reading the report to really care that Nathaniel looks like a fucking idiot in the big rubber suit, more impressed with his bravery and nonchalance. It can’t actually do anything to him, the suit is a precaution to keep the virus from coming into contact with his clothes and infecting Gavin, and the angel honestly could just miracle the infection off of him, but still. It’s the thought that counts and all that. And it sure as hell counts a lot since that little SCP-500 pill was missing from its containment chamber and Gavin doesn’t really fancy becoming a zombie.

When the lid of SCP-008’s containment closes, an automated response screeches from the intercom.  
 _“SCP-008 contained. Lockdown lifted on Heavy Containment Zone and Entrance Zone checkpoint lifted.”_

Once the announcement passes, Nathaniel and Gavin give each other a quick thumbs-up through the window and the angel retreats from the room, leaving the hazmat suit behind in the little hallway in-between 008’s containment and the entrance to the diverging path to the chamber and observation rooms where Gavin meets him.

“Alright, what’s next?” he asks.  
Nathaniel hums in thought, his eyes distant as he seemingly leaves his physical form behind for just a moment, or perhaps is actually just thinking that deeply about what to do next.   
“We are going to need to fix the power situation…but it’s very dangerous. As we discussed, I will not ‘baby’ you, but I must ask beforehand if you’re prepared to go into that place.”  
“Go where?”  
The angel sighs.  
“SCP-049’s containment chamber. Though we did encounter him earlier so it’s highly unlikely that he will be down there, I believe he may have… _cured_ the faculty overseeing his containment when the breach happened. The server room was only able to be remotely switched from the main power to the generator because of its importance, the same with SCP-049’s chamber. It’s meant to be separately connected, that way if something happens to the power, his containment chamber was meant to stay online to prevent him from breaching containment. However…whatever caused this to happen ensured that 049 was able to escape. We’ll need to redirect power from the main to the generator again for his containment, as I believe the power station there trying to draw from a damaged or re-routed source is what is causing so many areas of the facility to remain open and unsealed. The more we can take off the mainline, the easier it will be to contain others later on and access areas we require entry to.”

Well, Gavin isn’t really a huge fan of that, but like hell he’ll let Nathaniel do all the dirty work while he cowers in a corner with his head tucked between his knees again. 049 didn’t seem too difficult to get away from if all Gavin had to do was make sure it didn’t touch him, and Nathaniel was hell— _heaven-bent_ on making sure nothing happened to him so he doubted he would be in any true danger. Even if he was, he couldn’t in good faith just let Nathaniel do all of this himself while Gavin stood by and just waited.

“Well,” Gavin sighs, “lead the way, Angel. Let’s get the fuck outta here.”

  
He hates this.

Coming down here was the worst fucking decision he’s ever made but he’s gonna stick with it because he can’t afford to be a coward in this place. He can handle the dark, he’s even used to the strange vibe Nathaniel gives off and kinda finds comfort in it now, but the fact that these dead bodies on the ground aren’t actually dead and are some kinda zombie thing that SCP-049 created when it supposedly cured these men of that pestilence it thinks it can sense, that’s actually cutting it a bit close to Gavin’s limit of Freaky Bullshit he can take in a 24-hour period.  
The area SCP-049 is contained in looks a lot like SCP-18119’s containment chamber, long windows and all making for perfect observation at all levels, though SCP-049’s windows are on the same level as its chamber as opposed to above it like SCP-18119’s. As Nathaniel proposed earlier, SCP-049 is actually not here, its chamber blessedly empty which gives Gavin the chance to explore it a bit since the storage room across from the main chamber was totally empty. Inside, he finds SCP-049’s report complete with a little picture of the creepy bastard.

 **SCP-049’s touch is invariably lethal to humans.** is highlighted, followed by **After contact with SCP-049’s hand(s), the victim (hereafter referred to as SCP-049-2) dies within moments. SCP-049 will then produce a bag made of—** and here its been blacked out, then continues **—containing scalpels, needle, thread, and several vials of an as-yet-unidentified substance, from somewhere within its body (research has been unable to locate these tools when inside of SCP-049) and begins disecting SCP-049-2, as well as inserting various chemicals into the body. After approximately 20 minutes, SCP-049 will sew SCP-049-2 back up and become docile once more.**

Gavin looks out the observation window to the bodies on the floor. Nathaniel had told him when they’d first exited the elevator that put them down here not to be fooled into thinking they were either dead or harmless. He sighs and returns to the document. Another highlighted sentence reads **After a period of a few minutes, SCP-049-2 will resume vital signs.** before continuing on with **However, SCP-049-2 seems completely without higher brain functions and will wander aimlessly until it encounters another living human. At that point, SCP-049-2’s adrenaline and endorphin levels increase to approximately three-hundred perfect as it—** the sentence continues on under an orange highlighter, **attempts to kill and—** a blacked-out word **—any human beings it can find,** the highlighter stops though the sentence continues with **before returning to its mindless state and wandering until it comes across more humans. At this stage, termination with extreme prejudice is allowed.**

He returns the document to a table and rubs his tired eyes. He’s definitely lucky Nathaniel protected him from SCP-049 during their first encounter in the surveillance room, otherwise, he could be just like those poor bastards on the floor outside. He also finds a pair of night-vision goggles in the room which he entertains for just a moment before the visibility blacks out when the batteries die. It was cool while it lasted. Nathaniel had even chuckles when he saw Gavin with them on and getting such a soft thing out of the SCP was good enough for Gavin even if the goggles didn’t work. A shame, he thinks they could have come in handy at some point but they don’t have time to go around looking for batteries on the off-chance they need night-vision goggles. They’ve managed just fine without them so far, they’ll continue to manage.  
On another nearby table, Gavin spots an orange keycard with a large 4 in the upper right corner. He grins as he scoops it up and brings it to Nathaniel. The angel tilts his head as he takes it from Gavin’s hands and then smiles.  
“Lovely. This is perfect, thank you, Gavin,” he says. Again, Gavin hears a sound like leaves in wind again somehow, but it’s not the worst thing he could be hearing. He rather likes it, actually. It’s been so long since he heard rustling leaves and blowing wind that he can hardly find a complaint about it.  
“So, what’re you doin’ over here?” he asks.   
In front of Nathaniel is a console with two switches, one to activate the backup generator in the area and one to direct the elevator’s power feed. Again, the switch is defaulted to ‘Main’, though with the lights off and the elevators having powered off when they arrived and having hardly enough juice to get them down here in the first place, it seems Nathaniel’s hunch about the entire area taking damage was correct. The angel sighs.  
“I’m…thinking. Calculating. There are many things that can happen when I flip this switch so I’m just trying to plan for all of them. I don’t doubt the sound of the generator having power pulled from it will rouse the creatures outside, that is something inevitable, however—,”  
“Wait, you’re seeing…timelines?”  
Nathaniel nods.  
“Indeed. I see every possible outcome of every decision you or I make in this place, especially you, given my…status in regards to your existence, one just as likely to happen as every other.”  
“Jesus,” Gavin sighs, “how do you not go insane?”  
“I have much higher cognitive function than you, Gavin, these kinds of things to me are no different than if you were to count out the alphabet to find the 18th letter.”  
Gavin looks at Nathaniel with confusion in his eyes before they drop and the angel chuckles when he sees Gavin’s fingers and thumbs touching as he undoubtedly actually counts them.  
“It’s R, Gavin. But see how it’s hardly a process that requires higher thought than counting? It’s much the same for me. Anyways, I’m ready now if you are. Have you found everything down here we could use? Had your fill of playing with shiny new toys?”  
Gavin rolls his eyes and playfully punches Nathaniel in the shoulder.  
“Whatever, prick. Don’t get your feathers ruffled just cause I found something prettier and cooler than you to look at for ten seconds.”  
Nathaniel rolls his eyes in response and flips the switch from ‘Main’ to ‘Generator’ then quickly flips the other one to redirect the elevator’s power feed back to them. 

The room hums to life as it begins pulling power from the backup generator and Nathaniel quickly grabs hold of Gavin’s hand again to lead him out of the room just in time for the instances of SCP-049-2 to reanimate and clumsily stand from the ground.  
“Quick, Gavin! Back to the elevator!” he shouts, pushing Gavin in front of him to keep the drones as far from his human as possible. The corpses are easy enough to avoid, slow and uncoordinated as they are, and they’re able to easily run right past them. The real problem happens when they near the elevator again and it dings open, Gavin’s feet skidding on the metal flooring as SCP-049 himself emerges. Nathaniel grabs hold of the back of Gavin’s jumpsuit and pulls him back toward him and tucks him behind his back once more, glaring hard and dangerous at SCP-049.

“Move,” he says.  
SCP-049 sighs.  
“Come now, Nathaniel, you mustn’t do this. You know what will become of him if you don’t allow me to treat his condition.”  
“There’s nothing wrong with Gavin, now get out of our way, 049! I won’t let you turn him into one of your abominations!”  
SCP-049 scoffs and clenches his gloved hands into tight fists.  
“I expected more from you, Nathaniel, I thought you understood my work!” he shouts as he steps forward, causing Nathaniel and Gavin to take several steps back. “You said you understood me as only someone of your kind could. You said you could see the sickness.”  
“I do see the sickness, Doctor, but condemning them to a life of brainless nothingness is not going to rid humanity of its apathy. Is it not apathy infecting you as well when you kill these people and turn them into mindless drones? It has to be for you to not feel a thing when you inflict this torture on another living being.”  
“I have cured them!” 049 yells. “I am the only one who can cure them, how dare you imply the pestilence has made a host of me! I’m helping them even though they refused to help my people! How is that apathy??”  
“Because,” Nathaniel says, keeping Gavin crowded against his back as he continues backing them up, “you’re doing it for yourself. You’re doing this because of what this sickness did to your people, not because you want to prevent it from happening again. A misplaced sense of deity because of where you came from and the situation and grievances that bore you doesn’t make you impervious to human faults like selfishness.”

A harsh force pushes back the wandering creatures drawing near to them before Gavin can even warn Nathaniel that they’re coming close, their heads falling limply onto their shoulders after they hit the walls so hard that Gavin can hear the telltale snapping of their spines, rendering them either truly dead or paralyzed. SCP-049 glares at the pair through his mask and Gavin can hear the leather of his gloves creaking. 049 must know that it stands no true chance against a being like Nathaniel because it steps aside.  
“You are wrong, Nathaniel, and it will be your undoing. Fine then, take your mate and leave. But when he succumbs to the sickness you will find no sympathy from me.”  
Nathaniel keeps Gavin shielded behind him as he leads the man towards the elevator again, his eyes never leaving SCP-049 until they back into the elevator and the doors shut with a soft ding. It’s only then that Nathaniel relaxes, body suddenly sagging.

“…Nines?”  
“Yes?” Nathaniel replies tiredly. His eyebrows draw up a little when he sees that Gavin is offering him a bottle of water. He smiles fondly. “Thank you, Gavin, but I’ve no need of it. It will be wasted on me.”  
Gavin mutters a quiet “oh,” and tucks the bottle back into the bag. He looks at the angel again curiously, eyebrows drawn together. Nathaniel looks…terrible. Exhausted in the way only a trans-dimensional angel can.  
“You, uh, feeling alright big guy? You’ve been takin’ all this shit like a champ, we can find somewhere to rest if you need to.”  
“I’m quite alright, Gavin, thank you. I’ve…never liked 049. Even when we were first introduced I didn’t like him, I hated the things he did in response to the things he felt. Human nature is what it always has been, but the actions of the few shouldn’t dictate thoughts of the many. Most people are, at their core, good. Kind. Helpful and empathetic. Most don’t see a bad situation and think of how they can make it worse. It’s simply upsetting to see a creature that was done so wrong by his fellow man that he became something so selfish himself.”  
Gavin nods. SCP-049 certainly said a lot of things worthy of attention.  
“049, he…uh, he called me your—,”  
“A mistranslation on his part. When I spoke to 049, I brought up the fact that an important companion of mine was here as well. It was the first time the Foundation became aware that I knew they had you sequestered here somewhere. As I said before, Gavin, I could feel you in this place, it was only a matter of where.”

  
The metal corridors are a bit easier to navigate with most of the power running through them properly so he doesn’t really have to hold Nathaniel’s hand as they navigate them, but sue him if he does it anyway. It’s comforting to have physical proof he isn’t actually alone and crazy in this place. Plus, he’s grown used to the angel’s presence and the strange feelings that come with being in such close proximity to a being like him.   
Of course, because he’s grown used to him, it shouldn’t actually be that much of a surprise when Nathaniel stumbles and loses his footing.  
“Woah, hey— hey, hey, c’mon, it’s alright—,” he says to Nathaniel as he leads the angel through a door that opens into a large room lit with only a deep red light. His navigator doesn’t show anything nearby so he takes this as a safer place than the open hallway and helps Nathaniel settle on the floor. Of course, just when he was starting to get used to talking to this guy he’d go and switch it up on him. SCP-18119 is already completely unconscious by the time Gavin safely lowers him to the ground and Gavin really can do little else except sink to the floor beside him and let him use the backpack as a pillow while he watches the shift happen. 

It’s one of the most drastic by far in terms of style. Yeah, watching Niles go from prim and put together to a punk-ass little shit like Ethan was jarring, but watching Nathaniel, a literal angel with all the unease of being in the presence of an apex predator dressed in clothes that probably took 3 paychecks to even assemble as a full outfit suddenly changing into a man wearing a jumpsuit almost identical to Gavin’s is definitely not something he expected. He thinks for a moment that maybe this version of Nines is a Class-D too until he sees the writing on the back. Where Gavin’s simply says **D-10702** , this jumpsuit has **SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON — DEATH ROW — 18119** across the shoulders.

_Oh._

_That’s awkward._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gavin is a river in egypt


	10. Unhealthy Obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "you see, I take the parts that I remember and stitch them back together  
> to make a creature that will do what I say  
> or love me back"  
> \- Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my favorite version of Nines so far
> 
> I can't wait for you all to hate him
> 
> title from An Unhealthy Obsession by The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra

The only versions of 18119 that Gavin’s yet to meet are 900 and Kieran, and since this one doesn’t have an LED on its head or some funky android uniform then it’s only logical to assume this is Kieran.

Kieran.

Another version of 18119.

Who is a death row inmate.

Cool.

_I̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶f̶u̶c̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶o̶l̶—̶_

But whatever. He can deal. Not like anything in this godforsaken place is gonna somehow be less dangerous than this guy, right?

…right?

When the shift is done, Gavin looks him over. He looks just like all the others, the same handsome face with a sparse spattering of freckles, the same athletic-looking build, the same brownish-black hair. All that really seemed physically different about any of these guys was their sense of fashion. They each had their own personalities, of course, and Gavin may have to be a little more gentle with someone on death row since he was obviously there for a reason, but he couldn’t possibly be all that different. He reaches over and taps the man’s cheek a few times.  
“Kieran?” He calls. “Kieran, hey, c’mon man, wake up.”

Kieran’s face twitches a little as his eyes slowly open.

Yep, even the same blue eyes.

“Kieran—,”

“Gavin…?”

Kieran slowly sits up with his eyes locked on Gavin’s face, wonder and shock on his own.  
“Gavin—,”  
“Yeah, but not—,”  
“No, of course, you—,”

Kieran looks at Gavin’s jumpsuit and frowns, reaching out and tugging at the SCP insignia on his left breast side.  
“…of course.” He sighs as the thumbs over the black and white stitching.   
Gavin tilts his head a little. Where the other versions of SCP-18119 had been surprised to see him here and a little slow on the uptake of where they were, this one seemed to know right away that he was somewhere else based solely on the fact that Gavin was here. So, whoever Gavin was to this guy must be someone from his prior life. He can’t imagine how Kieran must feel seeing him again, especially here of all places.  
“I should have known,” Kieran says. “I did… I did know, but nobody would tell me. They would ask me questions about you, I knew you must be…but they didn’t let me see you. They thought that I would…but I’d never…”  
“Thought you’d…what, Kieran?”

The inmate looks up at Gavin for a moment before he smiles, dropping his hand from the insignia.  
“Oh, nothing, Gavin. It’s just that people, you know, they think the worst of those like us, don’t they?” He tugs at the collar of his own orange jumpsuit with a sideways smile. “I never interacted with the staff here very much, they didn’t trust me. Understandable, but unfortunate on their behalf. I’m sure I could have been useful in some way if they’d only given me a chance. But all that aside…” Kieran takes a deep breath and smiles so fondly at Gavin, eyebrows upturned and lips quirked and Gavin could nearly fool himself into thinking Kieran was—  
“It’s so good to see you again, Gavin…” he sighs as he gently takes Gavin’s hands in his own and lacing their fingers together. “I tried so hard to—but they…” he squeezes a bit. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

…oh god that's so fucking ominous.

“Yeah, well, I’m here.” Gavin chuckles nervously. “I’m, uh, all yours.”  
Kieran hums in amusement while slowly standing, then he stretches while taking a look around the room.  
“Hmm… Was there a breach?”

Gavin nods as he checks his navigator.  
“Yeah. I was, uh, in testing with Richard when everything went fucky. We decided to escape in all the chaos if we could.”  
“I see. What’s the plan then?”

The Class-D leads them out of the red-lit end room when he finally sees SCP-173 blink out of range.  
“We’re in the heavy containment area right now and we’re trying to find the containment for uh…fuck— uh, 106! That’s kinda secondary honestly to finding a way out of here but, y’know, I’d like to put it back if we can. It would just make it a lot easier to get outta here without worrying about it. Just never know when it’s gonna pop up and do whatever it is it does. Might be out for revenge since I tricked it into walking into a Tesla gate and Nathaniel made it fuck off with whatever angel shit he did. Said that even 106 knew better than to fuck with him, whatever that means. It was kinda cool, honestly, and I’d love to watch 106 and Nate hash it out. That’d probably be one hell of a fight.”

Kieran hums in acknowledgment.  
“You seem…rather impressed with Nathaniel.”  
“Huh? Oh.” Gavin blushes a little. “I mean, I guess? He’s literally an angel and that’s cool as shit. But I honestly think you’re all pretty cool. Robots, angels, detectives, punks, uh…” Gavin trails off as he glances to Kieran’s jumpsuit. The other man only sighs.  
“I’m sure you’ll find something endearing about me eventually, Gavin.”  
“Sorry. Just…y’know.”  
“Indeed, I know.”

It takes a bit longer than it had regarding the other versions of SCP-18119, but eventually, Gavin works up the nerve to ask Kieran what his version of Gavin is like. Kieran, in response, takes a low, deep breath and straightens his back a little.  
“Well… Unfortunately, due to my… _circumstances_ …we’ve been unable to see each other, so I’m not sure if he’s the same man I…knew. We were forced to split on less than favorable terms, you see, and I didn’t get a chance to properly explain myself upon arrest. Everyone was quite upset, as you can imagine. I’m sure, though, that they would understand if they’d only give me a chance. I’m sure Gavin believed me, somewhere deep down, I know he must have…”

Gavin knows better than to ask a real death row inmate what landed them there, but the way Kieran is talking about his own version of Gavin is somewhat odd.  
“Well, I don’t think anyone takes something like a prison sentence lightly.”  
“Indeed,” Kieran says as Gavin turns them left in a T-shaped hallway, “I wish I’d gotten the chance to know for sure. I miss him dearly.”

Seems like they were close, then, if Gavin’s opinion of him meant so much even after incarceration. Still, that doesn’t stop Gavin from feeling strange around this man. Not to say Nathaniel hadn’t felt dangerous, but this man gives off the energy of a predator. Gavin side-eyes the inmate and takes a deep breath.  
“So…” he drawls, drawing Kieran’s attention, “What, uh, what did you do before…” he gestures vaguely to the jumpsuit the SCP wears. Kieran, in return, just smiles.  
“Ah! Well, it honestly wasn’t anything too interesting. I’m sure whatever you were doing would surpass me in any measure.”  
Gavin huffs a laugh.  
“I was a police officer, actually, just a beat cop though.”  
“ _Just_ a beat cop? Already more of a story than I could have given you about my life. Tell me more, I bet you were a fine officer.”  
Gavin is drawn into Kieran’s charisma just like Richard warned was possible, but he honestly didn’t see anything wrong with being a people-person. He just smiles bashfully and rubs the back of his neck.  
“Ah, nah, nothing amazing. My dream was to take the Lieutenant spot, get the promotion I’d always strived for. I didn’t want captain, because they don’t usually do any active stuff, but Lieutenants still get to go out and bust shit, y’know? God, all I wanted was one good score to get my name on the radar, but…”  
Kieran tilts his head.  
“But…?”  
Gavin sighs.  
“…some things just aren’t meant to be, Nines. I don’t like thinking on it too much. Sorry.”  
“Of course, I understand. That’s all your business, Gavin, I wouldn’t dream of intruding where I wasn’t welcome.”

It feels like a reprimand somehow, and Gavin finds himself feeling guilty for prying to Kieran’s past before, even though he hadn’t actually said anything of the sort. Most questions towards Kieran feel that way, Gavin comes to learn. He never actually gives the answer that Gavin wants, just either deflects or gives something vague like he doesn’t want Gavin to actually know. Strange, but he doesn’t understand why he simply just tell Gavin to fuck off or shut up or mind his own business, rather concocting all these differing speech options that just end up with Gavin talking about himself. That uncomfortable feeling from before returns. Something in him doesn’t want Kieran to know him. It feels…wrong somehow, but Gavin doesn’t know why. He’s got enough braincells to rub together to understand Kieran obviously did something that warrants his death sentence, and obviously Gavin means enough to him in any life to shy away from giving him the information he’s all but dancing around. He just doesn’t get it. Gavin isn’t actually the one that Kieran knows, and Kieran had enough awareness and sense about him to understand that, same as all the others, but…then there’s the way he looks at Gavin when he thinks he isn’t looking, as if he can’t feel his silver-blue eyes boring into him hungrily. The way touches between them are fleeting, yet Kieran treasures them as if it’s something he’d always wanted yet never received in another life, whereas the other versions of SCP-18119 acted as though Gavin’s touch or attention was a long-missed memory. It’s a little more than suspicious. 

  
It takes much longer than Gavin would have liked for them to accidentally stumble upon SCP-106’s containment chamber. It’s one of few doors around that actually requires his level 4 keycard, and inside the room is a catwalk that oversees the containment chamber itself. Their footsteps clink and clank against the metal of the catwalk that leads them to a flight of stairs heading down to a control room. The control room itself contains a monitor with two switches and a button across from the doorway they’d entered from, as well was a level 5 keycard that he slides into the backpack, a note from a Dr. Allok that Kieran hands him, and another document that, once Gavin picks up and reads, turns out to be the exact instructions on how to recall and recontain SCP-106, on a desk nearby the monitor set. Gavin tilts the paper towards Kieran as the other man hovers over his shoulder a little too close for Gavin’s personal comfort, but he’s too afraid of the potential repercussions should he do anything that may potentially upset Kieran in any way. The man, while not threatening Gavin directly, shows extreme attachment to what he thinks of him. If he were to make Kieran think that he thinks lowly of him in any way, he feels like something bad could happen, so he plays along with whatever higher pedestal Kieran’s made up and placed Gavin upon for his own potential safety. 

“ _So,_ ” Kieran starts, a lilt to his voice that makes Gavin shiver, “he’s attracted to people in pain? Well, I’m sure that should be no trouble for us, Gavin. We’re quite unstoppable together, don’t you think?”  
“O-Oh, yeah, for sure, Nines.” Gavin says as he places the paper back down on the desk. “But, y’know, let’s explore a bit more, yeah? Never know what’s hiding in these kinds of places.”   
Kieran hums and his eyes stick to Gavin for just a moment longer than he’s comfortable with before the man smiles and nods in agreement, saying something about how Gavin truly is “always one step ahead,” and the implications of that make him uneasy to the point he’s almost considering ditching this guy for about the 4th time since the switch.  
Gavin suppresses a shudder as he looks down at the note from Dr. Allok that Kieran had passed to him after finding some kind of amusement in it.

_I would like to here again state that 106 is not, as is commonly believed, a basic predator, on par with an advanced shark. SCP-106 is a sentient being, albeit a totally alien one. SCP-106 appears to be aware of several things beyond the scope of pure instinct and genetic memory. SCP-106 consistently breaches at moments where recovery and containment are most difficult. A fox may see his way out of a trap, but only a man will wait for his captors to look away to escape._

_\- Dr. Allok_

He looks up from the note to Kieran for just a moment, the other man’s silver eyes finding his at just the right moment before Gavin submissively tears his eyes away and sets the paper down. He doesn’t see Kieran’s friendly smile drop into a blank-faced stare. At the end of the room, there’s a security camera on the ceiling to the right, and there’s another door requiring his level 4 keycard that leads into the secondary part of the chamber. Within that room is SCP-106’s true containment chamber, a sealed container comprised of lead-lined steel surrounded with an iron fence along the upper catwalk. Gavin looks over the railing at the floating box. 106 really goes in there? Even after reading its documents and the protocol on how to recall it into containment, he still doesn’t fully understand this creature. Then there was what Dr. Allok had said in their note that Kieran had, for whatever reason, found amusement in rather than fear or worry. He pushes himself away from the iron fence securing the safety of the catwalk just in time to see Kieran flipping a switch that turns on the video feed. A previously black screen flickers to life and shows a man strapped to a table with his leg up in a stirrup between two sections of a hydraulic press. Gavin approaches as Kieran’s eyes flick to his face while hovering over a button on the monitor set to turn on the intercom transmission.

The sounds of a man, scared and trembling, fill the room and echo off the white tile.  
_“I-is…is anyone out there?”_ He calls after sniffling a few times. _“Hello?”_  
Gavin and Kieran share a sideways glance, a silent question of whether or not this is something they should really do. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what a button labeled **FEMUR BREAKER** will do to a man whose leg is suspended in a hydraulic press, but that doesn’t mean Gavin is particularly eager to have that made a reality.  
_“Please, let me go. I just want to leave, please!”_  
Gavin can’t bring himself to even look at the button that Kieran seems all too eager to press after flipping the switch to turn off the ELO-IID magnets as directed on the containment documents, the mechanical whirring of the hydraulic press inside the chamber loud and grating on his ears as the man inside suddenly screams. Gavin flinches away from the sound and sight of the Class-D’s leg snapping and his agonized screaming echoing through the entire facility. Kieran, however, has other thoughts and draws in close, placing a hand under Gavin’s jaw and forcing his face back towards the screen to make him watch.  
“No, Gavin, you can’t turn from this, you have to watch. It gets easier with time…” he says softly in Gavin’s ear. “The less you hide from what you’ve done, the easier it is every time after. Don’t be afraid, don’t be sad. It’s all for you, Gavin, please understand…”  
Gavin gasps as Kieran presses close, a hand sliding around his waist to rest on his stomach while the man presses a singular kiss to the back of Gavin’s neck. He quickly straightens and turns around to shove Kieran hard, the inmate’s eyes wide in shock before lowering in anger.  
“You… You’re fuckin' crazy, Kieran!” Gavin shouts, noticing too late that all the personality was drained from the other man while SCP-106’s rumbling laughter fills the chamber and the camera slowly becomes overtaken by that strange black substance that had followed the creature earlier.

Kieran simply flips the switch for the magnets once more without taking his eyes from Gavin, and 106’s laughter fades into static as the man hums and says, “Maybe so.”

With SCP-106 contained, Kieran stands up fully from where he’d been leaning against the monitor and he glares at Gavin.  
“You’re so rude, Gavin, did you know that? All I’ve done, all of this, has been for no other reason than to help you, and yet here I am.” He drawls as he tugs on his prison jumpsuit marking him a dead man. “I’m not sure what I should have expected. You didn’t understand before, nobody did, I shouldn’t have thought maybe you would understand now. You’re a short-sighted and selfish man, Gavin, and I don’t know why I thought you could ever be someone remotely comparable to— to _my_ Gavin. I guess I thought you were different, that you were warmer, that maybe you’d love me like you loved all the others, but you just… You say such awful things, you refuse to listen and let me explain, and then you…you take it all for granted under the illusion you’re the one who was done wrong somehow.”  
Gavin slowly stands up straighter and backs himself up.  
“Nines— Nines, I— I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
Kieran smiles.  
“Did you never wonder why you were the specific Class-D in testing with us?”  
“Of course I did! Niles and Richard and Nathaniel, they all told me that we were friends!”  
The other man only snorts and laughs in response.  
“Hardly half true!” He barks. “If nobody else is going to tell you the truth, then I guess it’s all up to me! Oh, I can’t wait for you to know just how much you mean to us, Gavin…” he sighs before turning back to the monitor, his fingers clicking on the keyboard as he breezes through page after page and report after report before he finds the SCP document files for 18119.  
“Come here, dear, read it. Listen. It’s only right of you to know.”  
Gavin, afraid of Kieran and the sudden change in personality that honestly shouldn’t be as surprising as it is, turns to face the monitor and read whatever it is that he man had deemed so important for him to know. As his eyes flick over the screen, they widen and his jaw slowly drops. 

He… He was… He and Nines were…? But _why?_ Why would he and Nines be something like this? Why would he be so important? He’s confused about why Nines would hide this from him, but at the same time understands because he wishes he’d never known. If each variant of SCP-11189, of Nines, that he’s come to know over the last several hours truly has such a…close relationship with their Gavin far beyond what any of them had dared share with the one they’d found themselves with here, then…  
It explains why 18119 has been acting so weird, especially Richard and Nathaniel, but there’s much that Gavin just doesn’t understand.  
“Wait…but… Why you? What do I have to do with you?”  
Kieran’s stare turns to ice and he takes a sharp inhale through his nose.  
“I loved you from the moment I set my eyes on you, Gavin, and I know you knew it even if you were a little shy. I didn’t mind waiting. I loved seeing that spark in your eyes when you were focused on a case, I just had to get your attention. I did it all for you, every single scene was a courtship that you just couldn’t seem to decipher, until one day you finally put it together. I went after people that had been left unpunished, the people who were too rich and powerful for the law to touch, all of them were cases that touched your desk once upon a time. Once you realized that, I… It was so _exhilarating_ , Gavin, you got so passionate, I just knew you had to…you loved me too, Gavin, I know you did. You were just ashamed and embarrassed, and I tried to forgive you. I really did.” Kieran says, coming nearer and easily towering over Gavin with the six inches he had on the other man’s height. “I had you with me, you held my hand, you kissed me, you told me you loved me, you let me make love to you, and I was so happy you finally understood why I had done all those things, why it was you I just had to have. But you lied to me, Gavin, you lied and they took you away from me! You shot me and you arrested me!”   
Kieran tugs roughly at the collar of his jumpsuit and unsnaps the buttons to pull it aside so he can show Gavin a gnarly looking starburst shaped scar under his left collarbone just above his heart.  
“You nearly killed me, and you told me I was lucky you didn’t go between my eyes while I was bleeding out on the ground when I came to in the prison’s hospital!”  
Gavin bows under Kieran’s height, looking up at him with scared green eyes.  
“Kieran, I- I’m sorry, but that wasn’t _me!_ You can’t— That isn’t fair!”  
“No, Gavin, you know what isn’t fair? I did all of this for you, so you would know what it felt like for someone to care about and love you so much that they’d go so far as to kill someone for you, and you pretended for so long that you didn’t know who I was or what my scenes meant for us. I— _I never meant to hurt you, Gavin, I just-_ You— You needed to see— You _needed_ to— _No!_ Stop it, leave— _This isn’t about him—!”_

Gavin watches as Kieran stumbles away from him and holds his head, black-brown hair fisted between his fingers as that strange warble effect covers his face and his clothes phase in and out and in between, as if Kieran is standing on hot pavement or on the other side of a fire, distorted and unstable as Gavin just watches him phase between all his different forms, arguing amongst each other while the laughter of SCP-106 still rumbles in the intercom and even Gavin feels a little sick. He backs himself up against the wall as he just watches Nines collapse in on himself like some kind of glitch, and the last thing he does before collapsing is look at Gavin with pleading eyes and reaches out to him. Gavin can’t even bring himself to try and catch him, too afraid to go near the man even unconscious on the floor, not until he finally shifts and is left wearing what looks like a suit, and when everything’s finally over and Gavin approaches, he sees the back of the white and black jacket has a bright blue LED strip on the back under the word **ANDROID** in the world’s weirdest trademarked font and there’s a circular LED on his temple again, and under his right breast is labeled **RK900 #313-248-317 -87** , and there’s another LED strip armband around his right arm and an LED triangle on his left breast. It’s uncomfortable imagery, using armbands and triangles to label somebody in an identifiable manner, but the android on the ground shows no signs of waking any time soon even when Gavin calls his name and shakes him.  
Just as well, he thinks, since he needs a bit of time to think and he’s in no hurry to pretend all that shit didn’t just happen. He sighs deeply and turns his gaze back to the monitor to his left that still has SCP-18119’s entire report on the screen and glances back to Nines.

Well, he has some time to kill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “You just don’t know it yet but you love me and I love you the same  
> One day we’ll have a pretty wedding and I’ll be your everything  
> We’ll be together, yes, forever, and we’ll never ever part  
> Oh, you just don’t know it yet but baby, I’ve already got your heart.”


	11. What They Hid From You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I want to tell you this story without having to confess anything."  
> \- Richard Siken | Crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING IN THIS CHAPTER TOWARDS THE END 
> 
> GRAPHIC GORE AND BODY HORROR AND REFERENCE TO SEXUAL ASSAULT
> 
> SKIP TO ENDNOTES FOR SYNOPSIS IF YOU SKIP THE VERY END SECTION

**Interview Log 18119-1:**

**Interviewed:** D-10702, SCP-18119-E

 **Interviewer:** Dr. Keoni

 **Foreword:** Subject D-10702 is believed to share multiple instances and realities with SCP-18119. Ever since SCP-18119 was brought into Foundation custody, there have been many documented mentions of Subject D-10702 in each of their lives with a significant role. Subject D-10702 was also exposed to SCP-1074 (see Interview Log 1074-2) with positive results indicating an anomalous relationship between the two. Introduction and subsequent testing were approved by **Dr.** **[REDACTED]** and **Dr. [REDACTED].**

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Good morning, D-10702. We’re going to be conducting an experiment today. I’m going to introduce you to someone, and I want you to simply make conversation with the entity you meet. Do you understand?

 **D-10702:** …you brought me here for a playdate?

 **Dr. Keoni:** _(amused)_ If you’d like to think of it that way. Now, are you ready? Please, step inside the containment chamber and the test will begin.

_(D-10702 enters the containment chamber and draws the attention SCP-18119, currently in an instance of SCP-18119-E, known as Ethan. SCP-18119-E seems confused at the presence of D-10702 but doesn’t say anything. SCP-18119-E vaguely gestures to the chair across from him and silently offers a place for D-10702 to sit. Subject takes a seat and clears its throat.)_

**D-10702:** …uh…hey.

 **SCP-18119-E:** …hello. Why are you here?

 **D-10702:** I honestly have no idea. They told me to come in here and chat you up. So…what’s your name?

 **SCP-18119-E:** Ethan. What’s yours?

 **D-10702:** Gavin.

 **SCP-18119-E:** …Gavin? _(looks down)_ That’s…a nice name. I like it.

_(SCP-18119-E is silent for a few moments)_

**SCP-18119-E:** It’s good that you remember who you are. I think it would be easy to lose yourself in a place like this.

**[END LOG]**

—————————————————————————

 **Attending Researcher’s Note:** D-10702 was administered a Class-A amnestic after this experiment. A week later, D-10702 was returned to SCP-18119’s containment for another test with SCP-18119-E.

 **Addendum 18119-E.1:** D-10702 was asked after the test if anything about SCP-18119-E had seemed strange, and had only said that “he seems like a nice guy.”

—————————————————————————

**Interview Log 18119-2:**

**Interviewed:** D-10702, SCP-18119-E

 **Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

 **Foreword:** After the previous experiment on **[REDACTED]** , D-10702 was given a Class-A amnestic and does not recall its previous meeting with SCP-18119-E. 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Good afternoon, D-10702. We’re going to be conducting an experiment today. When you enter this chamber, I want you to interact and make conversation with the entity inside.

 **D-10702:** …you set me up on a date?

 **Dr. Keoni:** _(amused)_ Interesting you’d phrase it that way. Please, enter the containment chamber and take a seat. 

_(Subject enters the containment chamber and SCP-18119-E looks up from his puzzle and smiles. D-10702 sits at the table and tilts his head at SCP-18119-E’s expression.)_

**SCP-18119-E:** Hello.

 **D-10702:** Hey. My name’s, uh, Gavin. What’s yours?

 **SCP-18119-E:** _(looking up from his puzzle. He looks confused.)_ …my name is Ethan. Gavin, can I ask you something?

 **D-10702:** Go ahead, I guess. Can’t stop you.

_(SCP-18119-E seems to think better of this question because he hesitates before sighing, then speaking in a rather defeated tone)_

**SCP-18119-E:** …Would you like to help me with this puzzle?

 **D-10702:** ….sure.

_(Subject gets on the floor next to SCP-18119-E and assists in the 1000 piece puzzle, sorting the rest of the edge pieces in one area and then smaller piles of pieces based on color.)_

**D-10702:** …so what’s your funky shit? Like, what got you in here?

 **SCP-18119-E:** …I travel between dimensions and realities. They don’t understand how or why I do it, so they keep me here instead of letting me stay with my family. 

**D-10702:** Wait, really? You’re shitting me. Really? That’s fuckin’ cool. What’s it like where you’re from?

 **SCP-18119-E:** This is where I’m from, actually. This is my reality.

 **D-10702:** …oh. So nothing super cool then.

 **SCP-18119-E:** Unfortunately not. Perhaps if you meet the others they’ll have more interesting stories to tell you about where they’re from. 

**[END LOG]**

—————————————————————————

 **Attending Researcher’s Note:** SCP-18119-E and D-10702 were allowed to complete the puzzle together in roughly 5 hours, meanwhile making small talk and slowly becoming friends. Once the puzzle was completed, D-10702 was removed from the containment chamber and interviewed by Dr. Keoni.

—————————————————————————

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Hello, D-10702, welcome back from testing. I have some questions for you regarding the entity you met.

 **D-10702:** Ethan? Uh, yeah, what about him?

 **Dr. Keoni:** You two seemed to get along well. What did you think of him?

 **D-10702:** He’s nice, I guess. Kinda weird, though.

 **Dr. Keoni:** Oh? How so?

 **D-10702:** He talked to me as if he knew me already, but I swear I’ve seen him before. I dunno, I just have the weirdest feeling I’ve met him before. _(chuckles)_ Maybe in another life, eh doc?

 **Dr. Keoni:** …indeed.

**[END LOG]**

—————————————————————————

 **Addendum 18119-E.2:** D-10702 was administered another class-A amnestic after the interview with Dr. Keoni. SCP-18119-E was then interviewed separately.

—————————————————————————

 **Interviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87  
 **Interviewee:** SCP-18119-E

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Hello, Ethan.

_(Silence)_

**Dr. Keoni:** Ethan, I must ask you to speak when you are spoken to. We are conducting an interview.

 **SCP-18119-E:** …why did you erase his memory? 

**Dr. Keoni:** It is standard procedure to administer amnestics to Class-D subjects after testing, Ethan.

 **SCP-18119-E:** So…he isn’t going to ever remember me?

 **Dr. Keoni:** You seem abnormally upset by this, Ethan. Is there something you want to tell me?

 **SCP-18119-E:** …I feel like we already knew each other somehow. I noticed it the first time we met, but even today when we had to start all over again it felt the same.

 **Dr. Keoni:** An interesting observation, Ethan. Thank you for telling me.

**[END LOG]**

—————————————————————————

**Interview Log 18119-3:**

**Interviewer:** Subject D-10702, SCP-18119-R

 **Interviewee:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

 **Foreword:** Three days after the previous test with SCP-18119 and Subject D-10702, SCP-18119 underwent a shift and became an instance of SCP-18119-R, known as Richard. After this test, SCP-18119-R was placed under protective watch and his containment was restricted as punishment for his behavior when it was discovered he had gained access to his own file and learned D-10702 had been issued amnestics and had therefore forgotten all previous meetings between SCP-18119 and D-10702.

**[BEGIN LOG]**

**Dr. Keoni:** Good afternoon, D-10702. We’re going to be conducting an experiment today. When you enter this containment chamber, I’d like for you to simply interact with the entity to meet. Talk to it, sit with it, do whatever you’d like. At the end of the test, we’ll ask you some questions.

 **D-10702:** Uh…okay, I guess. Sure.

_(Subject enters SCP-18119-R’s containment chamber and immediately draws his attention. SCP-18119-R stands from the chair and begins frantically looking around the room, the LED on the side of his head flashing yellow. From what we understand, this gold color means SCP-18118-R and 18119-9 are thinking and calculating.)_

**D-10702:** Uh, hello to you too? You alright?

 **SCP-18119-R:** No, actually, I am not. Tell me, do you know who I am?

 **D-10702:** No, should I?

 **SCP-18119-R:** That’s what I thought… _(sighs)_ Make yourself at home, though I’m afraid I have little to offer in the form of entertainment.

 **D-10702:** _(takes a seat)_ So, what uh… What’s your name?

 **SCP-18119-R:** …Richard. And yours?

 **D-10702:** Gavin, but uh… Dude, are you alright? You seemed super pissed to see me here, do I, like, actually know you or something? 

**SCP-18119-R:** Oh, we do and I am, but it has nothing to do with you, Gavin, and everything to do with—

 **Dr. Keoni:** _(over loudspeaker)_ Richard, do not—

 **D-10702:** …we…know each other?

 **Dr. Keoni:** _(over loudspeaker)_ Do not answer that—

 **SCP-18119-R:** You don’t know me, but I know you, Gavin, and I—

 **Dr. Keoni:** _(over loudspeaker)_ SCP-18119-R, this is your final—!

 **SCP-18119-R:** _(LED red)_ No! How _dare_ you! I do everything you ask, I tell you everything you want to know, and this is what you do? You dangle Gavin in front of me knowing who he is to me, to us? He— How many times have you had him in here with us? 

_(At this moment, a security breach was detected that was quickly identified as SCP-18119-R hacking into the databases for access to his own SCP report and the inmate file on D-10702 for information)_

**SCP-18119-R:** You…

 **D-10702:** Woah man, I don’t have anything to do with—

 **SCP-18119-R:** _You erased his memory…_ You— Gavin, listen, I know you can’t believe this right now, but please— 

_(Security personnel entered the room with their guns drawn and aimed at SCP-18119-R and D-10702. High-Voltage taser devices and stun batons are in accordance with the containment procedures for SCP-18119-R and were used to subdue him, despite the fight he still puts up. Two security personnel were sent to the infirmary for their injuries sustained during the breach. Once the electrodes were placed against the back of SCP-18119-R’s neck and the shock was delivered he was finally able to be contained, though it did not stop him from attempting to speak with the Subject being removed from his containment unit.)_

**SCP-18119-R:** _(speaking in a glitchy manner through electric shocks and static, voice skipping and repeating like a scratched record)_ D-Do̢n't̡ ͝f͝o̸rge _eeeeee̶t͘_ ͞ab̷- _bout-bout-o͏ut̨_ me,͢ ̸G̨a- _aaaaa_ vin͝!͘ D͘o͝n't͝ ͝l̡e-͠ _l͘ȩ-̧l͡e҉ţ_ ̕the _ee͝e̸m mm̀m_ m͝a̴k̀e yo̡u͡ f̨fff͘o҉r̕g-̨ _or͟ģ-o͟r_ ge̡t ab҉ou͝uu͡uu͏t ̸us͠!

  
**[END LOG]**

————————————————————————— 

**Attending Researcher’s Note:** D-10702 was not interviewed after testing and was immediately given an amnestic, though refused, and fought the administration demanding to know what SCP-18119-R was talking about. Subject was sedated before amnestic was administered while unconscious.

 **Addendum 18119-R.1:** Observation Log

 **Observational Log 18119.OL.1**  
SCP-18119-R recovered from the damages sustained to its systems after the experiment with D-10702 but is now refusing to interact with any Foundation personnel and when he deems it absolutely necessary, is rude and dismissive, and threatens Dr. Keoni on three occasions. He shifted again a week later after spending the entire time between the experiment and the shift sitting on his bed with his knees tucked to his chest while maintaining a short-range wireless connection to his radio and playing _“Hold On Just A Little While Longer”_ by Rev. Cleophus Robinson Jr. and singing it under his breath.

————————————————————————— 

**Interview Log 18119-4:**

**Foreword:** SCP-18119 underwent a shift from 18119-R into 18119-A one week after the experiment involving Subject D-10702 wherein SCP-18119-R breached security to gain access to his SCP report and the inmate file on D-10702. When SCP-18119-A came to, he was immediately escorted to his containment chamber in Heavy Containment.

\- - -

  
The following interview was conducted by Dr. Gabriel Keoni with instance SCP-18119-A, known as Nathaniel.

  
\- - -

[ ▷ 0:00 / 8:28 ]

I **nterviewer:** Dr. Gabriel Keoni, Site-87

 **Interviewee:** SCP-18119-A

————————————————————————— 

**[BEGIN LOG]**

  
**SCP-18119-A:** _(boredly)_ My, my, someone’s been naughty.

 **Dr. Keoni:** Excuse me?

 **SCP-18119-A:** You, Gabriel. You lied to me. You told me that you had no plans with Gavin, that you didn’t know anything about him. And yet, here he is, in your custody.

 **Dr. Keoni:** How do you know that?

 **SCP-18119-A:** Gabriel, I know everything. You seem not to, otherwise, you’d have known better than to lie to me, especially about something like this. _(sighs)_ Oh, what’s an angel to do?

_(SCP-18119-A leans back in his chair and props his feet up on the table and crosses his arms across his chest, then closes his eyes. Observation notes interference with the audio for the next several seconds that sounds like wind blowing directly into the speakers, all while Dr. Keoni is unable to get SCP-18119-A to respond to his questions, even under threat of further restrictions during containment. When SCP-18119-A becomes responsive again, he simply hums.)_

**Dr. Keoni:** What were you doing, Nathaniel? You were momentarily unresponsive—

_(SCP-18119-A glares at Dr. Keoni before the man suddenly becomes silent and immobile, frozen in place. Observational staff and security were also effected and unable to stop the interview.)_

**SCP-18119-A:** Can’t a man have a moment of quiet to himself? You humans are so loud, I have no choice but to shut you all up myself for even the slightest respite from your endless babbling. If not for Gavin, I’d have let the others have their way. Truly, insufferable little creatures—

_(SCP-18119-A continued into a rant about, presumably, his distaste for humanity for the next 7 minutes and 19 seconds, quickly slipping back to his Enochian mother-tongue which had to be edited and removed to avoid the memetic effects of hearing it for later observation of this record)_

**[END LOG]**

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The following document was supplied via unknown means by SCP-18119-A, quoted at the time saying "Do not let him anywhere near Gavin."

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

**LOADING…**

**ERROR**

**E >R#RRrA90000004R**

**EVIDENCE**

**DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT**

**CASE NUMBER #87**

**INVESTIGATING OFFICER(S): SARGEANT GAVIN REED, DETECTIVE CONNOR ANDERSON, LIEUTENANT HANK ANDERSON**

**CASE REPORT**   
**SUMMARY**   
**“THE ANGEL-MAKER”**

**On SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19th, 2042, a body was discovered in the warehouse district of Detroit, MI. The victim was 39-year old MANIS JOHANSSON who had recently been declared “not guilty” of rape, sodomy, and murder of a minor due to an apparent lack of evidence. His body was posed in parallel to the famous painting The Lament for Icarus by Herbert James Draper, with the skin flayed from his shoulders and back and held in place with pins and wire, the other figures in the painting represented by teddy bears and dolls. COD determined at the scene by Medical Examiner (Attending: KIERAN ANDERSON) to be overdose due to track marks in the victim’s elbows and between his toes.**

**SGT. GAVIN REED was assigned this case because he worked on the original case against MANIS JOHANSSON.**

**-**

**On SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd, 2042, a body was discovered in the Ferndale district of Detroit, MI. The victim was 28-year old KATERINA FOLSOM who was found guilty of murder two years ago but was released early on probation. Her body was crucified, with her breast tissue removed and a crown of barbed wire around her head. The stitching along her breast was done with surgical precision, but was determined at the scene by Medical Examiner (Attending: Kieran Anderson) to have been done recently and while the victim was still alive, giving the time of death an estimate of between 30 and 48 hours. Her hair was washed and styled and her nails were freshly clipped, buffed, and painted. She was wearing natural-looking makeup.**

**SGT. GAVIN REED was assigned this case because he was the arresting officer on the original case against KATERINA FOLSOM.**

**-**   
**On MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9th, 2043, a body was discovered in a low-income neighborhood of Detroit, MI. The victim was 47-year old TODD WILLIAMS who was declared “not guilty” in the murder charge against him for the murder of his 9-year-old daughter, ALICE WILLIAMS, and their live-in nanny, KARA ARCHER. KARA ARCHER and ALICE WILLIAMS were found dead in the victim’s home on the morning of NOVEMBER 5th, 2038 in the child’s bedroom. KARA WILLIAMS was determined to have been strangled, and ALICE WILLIAMS was beaten until death with an unspecified weapon, though police suspected it to have been a leather belt. TODD WILLIAMS was declared not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming to have had a psychotic break and hallucinating with no memory of attacking the victims despite the toxicology reports showing a high level of narcotics in his system at the time of his arrest, but no evidence of drug use could be found in the house during the initial investigation.**   
**TODD WILLIAMS was found in his previous home, which was scheduled for demolition that morning, posed in mimicry of The Adoration of The Child (c.1518) by Correggio (Antonio Allegri), his arms bound in position with wire and his hands stitched together at the palms and fingers in a symbol of prayer. He was partially suspended from the ceiling to keep his body hunched over a wrapped bundle on the floor at his knees which was discovered to be a stuffed fox wrapped inside a pink sheet. In photos of ALICE WILLIAMS, she was often seen carrying around an identical toy and was even buried with it. There was a leather belt tightly fastened around his neck and a collar of needles injected into his neck just beneath it. Cause of death determined at the scene by Medical Examiner (Attending: KIERAN ANDERSON) to be strangulation due to popped capillaries in the eyes.**

**SGT. GAVIN REED was assigned this case because he was the arresting officer on the original case against TODD WILLIAMS and testified against him in court.**

**-**   
**On MONDAY, MARCH 16th, 2043, the body of LEO MANFRED was discovered in the home of his father, CARL MANFRED, at 8941 Lafayette Avenue, Detroit, MI. CARL MANFRED died on NOVEMBER 5th, 2038 of heart failure after returning home from an art gala with his caretaker and adopted son, MARKUS MANFRED. In the initial police report, LEO MANFRED claimed MARKUS MANFRED was attempting to steal their father’s art so he could sell it and they had called the police. LEO MANFRED claimed that in his anger, MARKUS MANFRED had shoved their father from his wheelchair and he had hit his head on the floor. When police arrived, MARKUS MANFRED was shot on sight after LEO MANFRED was seen on the floor cradling his bleeding forehead.**

**It was later revealed in the investigation that MARKUS MANFRED had been the one to call the police after he and CARL MANFRED had returned home and found the lights on. LEO MANFRED, when questioned by detectives, confessed that he’d started a fight with his brother and the stress caused their father to have a heart attack. MARKUS MANFRED shoved him away and ran to their father’s aid, causing LEO MANFRED to hit his head on the lift in the art studio allowing access to higher areas of a covered canvas. When the police arrived, he’d panicked and blamed MARKUS, not thinking the police would shoot him immediately. He admitted to having broken in to steal some of his father’s paintings to sell for drug money. He was found guilty of murder, but released on probation after 4 years of his sentence was served, only 5 months previous to his own murder.**

**LEO MANFRED was found in his father’s home hunched over a piano in the main living room, fingers poised over the keys, and glued in place. A mannequin stands nearby, posed to the right of the piano and head tilted in a manner depicting the man at the piano being acknowledged and watched, the elbow of the mannequin is propped on the lip of the black piano, mimicking The Music Lesson by Jan Vermeer. LEO MANFRED’s eyes were glued shut, but needles were inserted into them through the lids. Once removed and the victim’s eyes were opened, small bags of heroin were discovered to have been inserted into the sockets where his eyes had once been. The victim’s eyeballs were removed from his skull with surgical precision with “hardly a scrape on the inner socket and skull” according to the Medical Examiner (Attending: KIERAN ANDERSON) and had been placed on the top of the piano facing LEO MANFRED’s body. Cause of death determined to be a stroke. According to Medical Examiner, the body was positioned post-mortem and there were signs of the victim having been hung by his feet for an extended period of time (ligature marks on the ankles, arms, and wrists). The pooling of blood in the brain would have resulted in congested blood vessels that would eventually rupture and lead to a stroke, and then death.**

**SGT. GAVIN REED was assigned this case due to being the original arresting officer for LEO MANFRED.**

  
**-**   
**On SUNDAY, JUNE 14th, 2043, SGT. GAVIN REED was assaulted and kidnapped after his shift, falling unconscious due to the use of chloroform. When he awoke several hours later, he found himself in a remote cabin later identified to be in Tioga Falls, L'Anse Township, MI. He was subdued with Ketamine but was not bound in any way to keep him from moving around, though has said that he couldn’t have moved even if he wanted to. Some time after he woke up, a man came into the room with a platter of soup and some bread and hand-fed it to him, talking to him about something he still cannot recall due to the haze of drugs in his systems. He fell unconscious soon after eating but does remember his captor smiling at him and kissing his forehead. When SGT. GAVIN REED awoke again, he was more alert and had an IV placed in his arm giving him essential vitamins and keeping him hydrated while he slept off the rest of the tranquilizers. After that, the man entered the room again and this time, more alert, SGT. GAVIN REED was able to identify him as KIERAN ANDERSON, the medical examiner for the Detroit Police Department. He asked KIERAN ANDERSON what was going on, where they were, and what he was doing, but was simply told they were “celebrating a very special occasion” with a “secret getaway”. SGT. GAVIN REED stated, “Nobody knew we were there, I don’t even know how long we were in that cabin, he kept me pretty sedated for a little bit, but eventually cut it out altogether when he felt comfortable I wouldn’t try to run off. He let me watch TV or listen to the radio or read if I wanted, but he fucked with everything so I couldn’t watch or listen to the news or weather. He… He said he didn’t want me thinking of work while we were spending our vacation together. It was something special just for us… It was so fuckin’ weird, like, he made all my favorite meals, kept my favorite books on hand, had my favorite movies and TV shows just…on hand for me to watch whenever I wanted. It was like he’d been planning the whole thing for a long time. It— It would have been a little romantic if he hadn’t, y’know, kidnapped and drugged me. Oh, and killed all those people.”**

**Over the course of the three weeks SGT. GAVIN REED was held by KIERAN ANDERSON, he learned that all the crime scenes had been ways to get his attention. SGT. GAVIN REED stated, “They were like fucked up love letters. They were all my previous cases, all people who we knew had lied and cheated their way out of conviction or had schmoozed out of full-sentencing. He was hoping I’d noticed the detail he’d gone through so much to incorporate and I… I guess he mistook my determination to find him as acceptance of his feelings, whatever they were. I still can’t tell if he wanted to kill me or not, but…he didn’t act like it. He… He was really sweet, and that’s the worst thing, isn’t it? Nobody’d ever actually, y’know, treated me like that. At night, he’d curl up in the bed beside me and read to me and he’d always wake me up the next morning with, like, kisses ’n stuff, and then he’d feed me breakfast and make me coffee just the way I like it. It… It felt like he…really loved me, but just had the most fucked up, disgusting way to show it. I… I almost… I almost thought I could love him too, and I might have if Connor and Hank hadn’t found me.”**

**When asked about the charge of rape he’d also placed against KIERAN ANDERSON, SGT. GAVIN REED stated, “I never felt coerced or manipulated at the time, but that doesn’t change anything. [KIERAN] will say it was consensual because I made him think it was, and…maybe I made myself think it was too. God, that’s so fucked up, that fuckin’ psycho made me believe I actually wanted all the shit he did to me… Look, I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. Bottom line, it doesn’t matter that I— That I actually felt like someone actually fucking loved me for once, because it wasn’t… It wasn’t real. I was just trying to survive. Add the fucking rape charges, get the hell out, and leave me alone, Connor.”**

**When DET. CONNOR ANDERSON and LT. HANK ANDERSON located SGT. GAVIN REED and KIERAN ANDERSON, SGT. GAVIN REED seemed reluctant to leave KIERAN ANDERSON’s custody at first, only regaining his senses once they’d finally been separated. When SGT. GAVIN REED was recovered and realized what had happened to him, he grabbed the sidearm from the holster of a nearby officer and fired three (3) shots at KIERAN ANDERSON, hitting him only once in the chest. KIERAN ANDERSON was violent with the arresting officers, not caring that they were his own brother and adoptive father, deeming his love for SGT. GAVIN REED as something more important. KIERAN ANDERSON was detained and SGT. GAVIN REED was taken to the hospital.**

**When interrogated, KIERAN ANDERSON claimed he hadn’t kidnapped Gavin at all, stating, “It was meant to be a surprise, I didn’t want him knowing where we were going. It was beautiful there, perfect seclusion. It was the quiet that Gavin deserved for something so special.”**   
**When asked what the celebration was for, KIERAN ANDERSON responded, “An anniversary, of course. When we first met. It was love at first sight, it had to be. He reminded me of those schoolyard bullies, you understand. Mother always told us if someone was mean to us, it was because they didn’t have the emotional capacity to say they liked us and wanted to be our friend. Gavin was the same when he antagonized me, I know it. He truly is a very kind man, Connor, if you’d only give him a chance. None of you know him as I do, nobody does. What we have is…very special. He— He didn’t mean to hurt me like that, you all forced him to do it when you fed those lies to him. You would know how you manipulated him if you’d heard him tell me how much he loved me or seen the way he kissed me.”**   
**KIERAN ANDERSON was sent to California for his sentencing and was found guilty of 15 counts of first-degree murder, rape, and kidnapping, and was sentenced to life in prison until he was to be executed by the state.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you skipped the endnotes, here's what you missed:
> 
> It was Kieran's case report. He was the attending medical examiner on a series of cases that related to Gavin in some way, usually by being someone he had attempted to charge before getting off somehow. Kieran would then hunt them down himself and kill them, then leave their crime scenes as puzzles and love letters for Gavin to figure out. eventually, he kidnapped Gavin and kept him in a secluded cabin in the woods for several weeks until even Gavin began to believe in the fantasy of him and Kieran being in a relationship and being in love


	12. Living Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "All this was prepared for me. All this was set in motion long ago. I live in someone else's future."  
> \- The Worm King's Lullaby | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the party Nine!

Gavin doesn’t know how long he stands there reading over and listening to the interviews, but it’s long enough for SCP-18119 to come to. Rather unceremoniously, actually, since the guy simply opens his eyes, sits up, then stands in one fluid motion. He stands there with his arms folded behind his back and just sorta…watches Gavin for a moment before that little light on his temple flickers and he takes a few steps closer. He clears his throat, something completely unnecessary for an android to do, but it does get Gavin’s attention as probably intended, so good for him on that.

“…Gavin?”  
“Hm?” He hums, still mostly reading the file but his head is slightly tilted in 18119’s direction. “What’s up, Iron Man?”  
“I was…simply curious as to what you were doing.”  
“Oh, you know, just researching you and your reality-bending brain buddies. So, you look like Richard except dressed like a fuckin’ doofus. So, you must be Nine.”  
The LED spins a few times before the android nods.  
“Indeed, my model is RK900, but I will also respond to Nines if you prefer to call me that.”  
Gavin nods.  
“Uh-huh, way ahead of you, bud. Now, 106 is contained and we don’t have to worry about him, so getting the hell outta here should be much easier. I found a map on the terminal while you were over there napping and I have a pretty good idea of the layout of this place, but if you could, y’know, snag one for me to keep in your head that’d be a big help. Human memory, yeah?"  
Nine just stares for a moment before that LED flickers once.  
“Download complete, I now have a full map of the facility.”  
Gavin smiles and nods.  
“Good. Alright, let’s get the fuck out of here because it sucks and I hate it.”  
“After you.” Nine says, following after Gavin with his back straight and his eyes occasionally scanning the environment.

  
“Got a question for you, Nine.”  
“Yes?”  
Gavin sighs and rubs the back of his neck.  
“Was the report I read about you true? Like, you not being a deviant like Richard and having to do whatever someone tells you?”  
Nine nods once, a single up and down motion.  
“Correct, though the Foundation was incorrect in stating that I had to follow anyone’s orders. I am to follow my handler’s orders, or otherwise decide for myself based on my programming. For instance, if my handler was not around to give me an order, but it would be the best course of action for completing a mission then I have the ability to do it anyway without explicit permission, as per my programming.”  
Gavin nods in understanding.  
“So, lemme guess… I’m, uh, your handler?”  
“Technically. Your order to retrieve a map registered all the same as the Detective’s.”  
Gavin sighs.  
“Alright, well, I don’t like that and I’m sure as hell not gonna order you around like a fuckin—,”  
“Robot?” Nine asks, an eyebrow raised.   
“I was gonna say slave. Yeah, so… Your order is, uh… Stay alive, alright? You got someone back home waitin’ for ya.”  
Nine’s LED spins as the order enters his vision and he nods again, watching as the priorities in his programming sort and fight each other for superiority.  
“I am a machine, Gavin, and I am not actually alive, but… As per your order, I will do my best to remain undamaged.”

After the last three encounters with SCP-173, it’s easy now for Gavin to know when it’s nearby and what to do to avoid it when he finally gets his eyes on the fucking thing. Nine is rather determined to keep Gavin safe, probably some part of his programming to protect his “owner” at all costs, but Gavin’s order to keep himself alive is obviously at war with it since by keeping Gavin safe he’s putting himself in harm’s way. It’s…strange watching an android literally at war with its own directions, and much less amusing than when the Task Manager on a computer freezes. Gavin feels bad, honesty, being such a high source of stress for the android, but it doesn’t feel right treating him like an inanimate object when Gavin knows what he has the potential to be. In the interview log with Richard, he’d said that it occurs naturally in androids who are either under extreme stress or are traumatized in some fashion. Well, this entire situation is pretty anxiety-inducing, and no doubt some High-Quality Trauma™. Gavin doesn’t like thinking about that in a positive way, but maybe this will be what Nine needs to actually be free like he deserves. Nobody should be cooped up forever, not even robots.

As they enter a three-way catwalk, the same one he’d walked with Nathaniel, Gavin is honestly half-expecting that fucking duck to be sitting on top of a container waiting for him, but instead there’s just…a little teddy bear. A brown one with a black bowtie stitched into its neck. It’s SCP-1048, the bear that makes copies of itself. He and Nathaniel had seen it momentarily before entering Heavy Containment from the other side of the checkpoint window. Now, though, it’s dancing and jumping and waving, trying to get their attention again. Clutched in a little fuzzy paw, somehow, is a piece of white paper. Gavin and Nine share a look before slowly approaching the thing as it stands on the railing. 1048 jumps excitedly and holds out the paper, then seems to bashfully rub its paws together while Gavin looks at it, Nine peeking over his shoulder.  
It’s a drawing, a very crude one that a child would conjure, but Gavin has a feeling it’s of him and 18119. It’s two people next to a box, but there’s another, smaller box inside that one on top of what appears to be a table, and it has an exaggerated angry face drawn on it.  
“Oh, uh…” Gavin says, lifting his eyes from the paper to look at the bear again, “thanks, I guess— _Aaaand_ you’re gone.”  
Somehow, in eyesight, in literal touching distance of Nine and Gavin without even having to stretch, the bear just…disappeared. Nine’s LED flashes yellow and red in response to this, but Gavin just sighs and pats his arm.  
“Dude, let it go. A teleporting teddy bear is not the weirdest shit in here and you know it, don’t fuckin’ bust a circuit thinkin’ too hard about it.”  
“…I don’t like it here, Gavin.” Nine says. “I would like to go home now, please.”   
“Join the fucking club, Nines.” Gavin snorts.

The sign outside this chamber is unsettling, just looking at the thing. It’s…a mask of some sort, and it looks like those comedy-tragedy drama masks, except it’s got some kinds of black substance staining its eyes and mouth. Opening the initial door with the level 4 keycard, Gavin is surprised to see this chamber is actually comprised of four rooms. The door on the right actually needs a level 5 keycard to enter, which makes Gavin smirk with pride that’s he’d actually managed to find one. As he digs around in the bag for it, he asks Nine, “Hey, Nine, what’s in here?”  
“This is the containment unit for SCP-035. The SCP itself is hostile, but as long as we do not encounter it physically or allow ourselves to be manipulated in any way, we should be fine. There is a small storage room, but I do not know for sure what is kept inside. Are you looking for something?”  
“Yeah, hold on.” He says. “I snagged a level 5 from 106’s chamber before Kieran went batshit, it’s in here somewhere, gimme a sec—,”  
“You seem to be struggling. Allow me.”  
Nine lifts his hand and retracts the skin there, revealing flawless white plastic that hums with electricity, and he places it against the card reader. Something fizzles and beeps from inside the mechanisms before the door slides open with a hiss.  
“Here.”  
Gavin, mouth slightly opened in awe, grins and pumps his fist.  
“Fuck yeah! God, you androids are super cool. What was that, anyway?” He asks as he and Nine walk into the room together. It’s a control room containing some filing cabinets, tables, and a control panel with two levers: one controlling the door to the small chamber they can see through the large glass window, and one controlling what appears to be gas valves that will flood the chamber. There’s a document on one of the tables that Nine picks up as he answers, reading over it briefly. It tells them pretty much not to enter the chamber on the other side of the window unless they want to be driven insane and die, which isn’t exactly a surprise in a place like this, but no less upsetting to read.  
“I hacked the control panel.”  
“No, no, I know that. I’m talking about your hand. Richard did that when we first met— I mean, like, when we first met today. Before the breach. He did that to prove he was an android, but I don’t actually know what it is. I never thought to ask.”  
“You think to ask now?”  
Gavin shrugs.  
“Jeez, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Nines, I just thought it was cool. …kinda pretty, the way it glows like that.”  
If Gavin didn’t know that, as a non-deviant, Nine didn’t actually feel emotions and therefore couldn’t be embarrassed, he’d think he could see a little blush on those freckled cheeks of his. The android nods and it quiet for a moment before speaking up.  
“It’s…me. The real me, under this…skin. Humans found the mannequin-look to be rather unsettling in the beginning years of our creation, so we were given an artificial liquid-polymer projection to mimic skin and hair, including different ethnicities, genders, and aesthetics including freckles, moles, and even facial hair if our owners chose to customize us in such a way. It could be changed to fit any preference. But, when interfacing with any other technology, especially other androids, the skin retracts to allow a proper connection.”  
Gavin nods.  
“What about that blue glow?”  
“The liquid is partially composed of Thirium to keep it compatible with the rest of our systems, which is what causes that blue light you saw. Thirium is what powers an android’s biocomponents, our organs. It’s our blood, so to speak.”

  
 _“If you two are done…”_ a voice says through the intercom speaker. Gavin jumps in place and turns to the large window, only to see a human standing in the opposite room with that mask on their face. Gavin glares at them.  
“Fuckin’ hell, man, you need a bell.” He groans.   
The man inside the chamber sighs. He’s wearing researcher garb, but there’s something…wrong. And it’s not just the freaky mask on his face.  
 _“I’ve been standing here for a while, it’s not my fault you didn’t notice me until I decided to speak up. Look, I need help and medical attention, will you help me?”_  
Gavin hums and looks at Nine, only to see the android is simply staring ahead at the man behind the glass. He doesn’t need to see his LED to know it’s blinking like crazy. The man inside looks right back at Nine and tilts his head.  
 _“Hey, Blinky, you, uh, you feeling alright? Look, I’m a scientist, I know my way around here. I know you’re a D-Class and an SCP, but… Look, just let me out and I’ll pretend I never saw you, okay? Just— Just open the chamber doors with that control panel.”_  
“Why are you wearing SCP-035, Doctor?” Nine suddenly asks. Gavin can see his LED’s reflection on the window. It’s red. “Surely if you had enough clearance to enter this chamber then you knew the risk of being close to it.”  
The scientist crosses his arms.  
 _“What? Alright, I admit it, I wouldn’t blame if you think I don’t look trustworthy, but please. This thing’s been stuck to my face for a while and it’s gonna kill me from the inside if someone doesn’t get it off me. Just let me out and I’ll find an exit for us, we’ll go our separate ways and I won’t tell anyone I saw you.”_

“What’re you thinking?” Gavin asks.   
Nine keeps his steely eyes locked on the man inside the containment chamber, LED still red in the reflection.  
“The man under that mask is no longer alive, Gavin. He has been fully possessed by SCP-035, the mask he wears. When SCP-035 is placed on the face of an individual, an alternate brain wave pattern from SCP-035 overlaps that of the original host, effectively snuffing it out and causing brain death to the subject.”  
In the other room, the man, SCP-035, clenches their fists. Interference crackles over the speaker and when the voice comes through again, it's deeper and more irritated.  
 _“Fine. I think we got off on the wrong foot here, 18119, so what do you say we start over, hm? I’m really not up to no good. I want to get out of here, same as you. Look, I’ll even sweeten the deal. Go open that locked door, there’s all sorts of goodies in there. I think someone put an SCP-500 pill in there a while ago, and I haven’t seen anyone take it since. It’s all yours, the code is 5-7-3-1.”_

Gavin, still just watching the two, sighs.  
“Nines, look, I… I think we should let him out. You said it yourself before, these people deserve the consequences for what they tried to do. If that means letting 096 or this fuckin’ guy loose, then so be it.”  
“…I said that?”  
“Well, I mean, Nathaniel did, but he’s…y’know.”  
Nine sighs.  
“…I do not think freeing SCP-035 is the best course of action, Gavin, but I will not stop you if you wish to free it.” He says, dropping his stare from the entity on the other side of the glass.   
Gavin takes a deep breath before flipping the switch on the control panel to open the other door. SCP-035 seems surprised as they look back and forth between the door and the D-Class, then seems to relax.  
 _“Thank you. Gavin, was it? And SCP-18119? Interesting… Now, for that way out I promised you, hm? For the sake of my freedom.”_ SCP-035 says. _“I have reason to believe that SCP-079 is taking control of the facility’s systems, including the door system.”_ They turn their head towards Nine and tilt their head, somehow smirking despite the expression on the porcelain mask never changing. _“But you already knew that, didn’t you?”_ They chuckle.   
Nine and Gavin both turn to each other.  
“Wait, Richard said you guys didn’t have anything to do with this shit.”  
Nine’s LED spins.  
“…SCP-18119-R was introduced to SCP-079 at one point due to commonalities. It… It is possible they made some sort of agreement as trapped machines at the beck and call of humans, but I couldn’t say for sure. You would have to ask them to learn the whole truth.”  
 _“SCP-079 is under level 2 clearance, so that level 5 you have is more than enough, however, because it’s in control of the door systems, it’s likely it’s keeping itself locked away and won’t let you in. You’ll have to turn remote door control off, which is in the Entrance Zone.”_ SCP-035 tells them. _“That’s all I have for you. I hope you find your way out of here, I think you two are a rather interesting anomaly in the world, but nothing that should be locked up in here.”_  
SCP-035 nods in farewell before turning and exiting the containment chamber through the door on their right, leaving Gavin and Nine in observation.

“Well,” Gavin starts, “that’s definitely a way out. You wanna tangle with 079?”  
Nine simply shrugs.  
“I think that may be our only way out, Gavin. If SCP-079 is indeed in control of the entire facility, it is unlikely it will allow us to open either gate and escape through them without its explicit permission. SCP-035 said remote door control is in the Entrance Zone, so we should go there and then return here to Heavy Containment to speak with SCP-079.”

  
——

  
Having secured SCP-008 in its containment receptacle, the large doors separating the Heavy Containment Zone from the Entrance Zone now allow themselves to be opened with a swipe of Gavin’s level 5 card. The doors open with a loud buzzing alarm and they pass through. The checkpoints are all very dark, poorly lit rooms with observation windows, but on the other side of the opposite door is a brightly lit set of hallways.   
The Entrance Zone is, as noted on the directional signs on the walls, apparently dedicated to the research and administrative division of the site. It’s a sterile, clean area adorned with bright white walls and painted orange stripes, two small ones along the middle and one broad one edging the floor.

The intercom overhead screeches, but instead of that nonsense Gavin’s grown used to, the voice is a real person now and much easier to understand.  
 ** _“Mobile Task Force Unit Epsilon-11, designated Nine-Tailed Fox, has entered the facility. All remaining survivors are advised to stay in the evacuation shelters or any other safe area until the unit has secured the Facility. They’ll start escorting personnel out when the escaped SCPs have been re-contained.”_**

Gavin and Nine look at each other.  
“We better hurry,” Gavin says and Nine nods in agreement, the two picking up the pace of their walking.  
“With a Mobile Task Force now inside the facility, Gavin, it is important for us to remain undetected at all costs, they will not hesitate to terminate either of us.”  
Gavin takes four heavy breaths.  
“Yep, uh-huh, got it. Thanks for that, Nine, really. Preesh.”  
The android’s LED flashes red and he looks away.  
“My apologies. I did not mean to—,”  
“It’s fine, you’re just stating facts. Now help me out here, this place is a fucking labyrinth even with those guide signs. Get us to door control or whatever the fuck.”  
Nine nods and his LED flickers for a moment as he accesses the map of the facility.  
“This way, come.” He says, taking Gavin’s hand and pulling him along. “The electrical center houses remote door control, but it is quite far from where we are now. We will have to pass through the Doctor’s Quarters and the cafeteria if we are to take the quickest route.”  
The hand-holding, while not necessarily unwelcome, means something much different now that Gavin knows just who he is to SCP-18119 in all their realities. Then again, Nine is undeviated, not alive and still existing to serve his handler. Gavin hopes that whatever version of him is in Nine’s universe, he’s not enough of an asshole to do something to someone who can’t say no. But, he’s missed the warmth of holding 18119’s hand ever since Nathaniel popped off. Every time Kieran had held his hand, it felt…wrong. He lets himself smile a little as he squeezes Nine’s hand tight, a reassurance to themselves that they were safe together and wouldn’t be separated.

The Doctor’s Quarters is…a little unceremonious. Gavin would have thought with a name like that, it would be more than a single T-shaped room with three offices inside of it, but he’s been wrong before.  
“Hey, Nine, hack these doors open for me, huh?”  
Nine blinks but does as Gavin asks and presses his bare palm to the keypads, the office doors hissing open.  
“Are you looking for something?”  
Gavin shrugs.  
“I know we’re in a hurry, but it never hurts to look around. You never know what you could find.” Gavin says as they enter a door belonging to one Doctor Maynard. Inside the office is three metal shelving units on the right wall, a metal desk and chair just to the right of the door facing the wall with a monitor just above it, and on the opposite side of the room from the door is an L-shaped desk with a lamp, some binders, and a monitor, as well as a single piece of paper that Gavin picks up while Nine’s curiosity takes him to the wall-mounted monitor. On the page is a hand-written note reading **“YOU MADE IT SO EASY NICE WORK FOUNDATION”** in what Gavin must admit, is pretty bad hand-writing. He hums and looks up at Nine, who is staring at the monitor.  
“…you find something?” He asks.  
“Maybe… There’s a message exchange on here between Doctor Maynard and an unknown client. The messenger says ‘It’s out,’ before Doctor Maynard replies with ‘Proceeding,’. The message is timestamped with 09:21 hours, which is…the same timestamp for SCP-106’s initial breach. But that doesn’t make sense — why would a Doctor conspire a containment breach?” He ponders with a yellow LED.  
Gavin shrugs and picks up the paper, handing it over to the android.  
“I dunno, Nine, but it looks like this Maynard guy was part of it. This was on his desk, and if I go through those binders full of paperwork, I bet I’d find the handwriting is a match.”  
Nine takes the page and looks over it, then sighs.  
“It just doesn’t make sense to me, and…that is distressing. If I were a deviant, I’d be able to simply not think about it, but because of my programming, I have to make it make sense. I was made to solve crimes — every puzzle has a solution, it has to be solved. If I can’t find the reason, the solution, then I’ve failed at my mission and I was not created to fail anything.”  
Gavin tilts his head and takes the paper away from Nine’s hands, replacing it with his own to give a slight squeeze.  
“…you ever, y’know, actually wanna…break that shit?”  
Nine’s LED flashes bright red and his eyes widen.   
“…have I ever wanted to deviate? I…” he looks down at their hands, LED spinning and flashing between yellow and red before he quickly drops Gavin’s hands and turns his head away, hiding his LED from the human. “No. I— I am a machine, Gavin, I cannot want anything.” 

Gavin nods slowly and drops the paper to the ground, leaving Doctor Maynard’s office and heading just down the little hall and to the right into an office for Doctor Gears. There isn’t anything actually in here, no notes or interesting objects, but Gavin remembers the report for SCP-18119 saying that Gears was someone overseeing his containment when Nathaniel was present. They leave the empty office and continue on to the next door on the left labeled for Doctor Harp. This office is an exact mirror to Maynard’s, with the shelves on the left wall and the desk towards the right side. Inside this office is a small first aid kit on a shelf, which goes right into the backpack, but more important to Gavin than that is a stack of paper with a yellow sticky note on top. He picks it up and reads it while Nine continues to look around and eventually picks up another piece of paper to read.   
Reading these papers, it looks like someone named Jim Gonzales worked here as a janitor or something talking about his wife and daughter, Becky and Lily, in these journal entries. Lily had grown up and gone to college and Jim was so proud of her but missed her terribly in the now empty house, but a few months later he was offered a position with the foundation. It made Gavin feel warm inside, but it was quickly replaced with ice in his veins when he read the yellow note that had been attached to the pages.

_“Sir, I retrieved this_   
_page from Mr. Gonzales'_   
_journal as you requested._   
_It appears the memory_   
_implant was successful._   
_We won't be getting any_   
_problems from him about_   
_his family anymore."_

Gavin crumples the papers in his hands and angrily throws them in the garbage.  
“Sick motherfuckers!” He shouts, drawing Nine’s attention. Gavin looks at him and scowls. “The bastards took a man from his family and gave him fake memories so he’d shut up about wanting to go home! They made him think he’d actually been there to watch his fuckin’ kid grow up and go off to college! They fucking deserve all this shit, I don’t care! You don’t— You don’t fucking rip innocent people out of their lives and make them go through this! He didn’t— He didn’t do anything, Nines! He didn’t want to be here, he never wanted to be here but they fucked up all his memories and made him forget and—!”  
Nine sets the paper he’d been reading aside and approaches his irate companion, slowly taking his shaking hands and holding them. It’s enough to make Gavin stop shouting and take deep breaths. Nine then hesitantly pulls Gavin to his chest, giving the human plenty of opportunity to pull away if he wants to, but instead, Gavin just sags against him and presses his face into the android’s shoulder.  
“I… I didn’t… I didn’t _do_ anything, Nine, I shouldn’t fucking be here… I didn’t do anything wrong.”  
“I know. I… I may not be able to provide the best of comfort, but I am here for you.” Nine says, one arm around Gavin’s shoulders while his hand gently strokes his hair. His other hand is still holding one of Gavin’s, and they slowly lace their fingers together. It’s natural at this point for their hands to find each other. “There is nothing I can do to change the past, but I can improve the present and perhaps the future by aiding in your escape from Site 87.”  
Gavin nods.  
“We’re getting you outta here too, Nine,” Gavin says into the fabric of his jacket.   
Nine smiles gently and nods.  
“Of course.”

They stand together for just another minute before Gavin pulls away and lets out a deep breath, wiping his red eyes.  
“What, uh, what were you reading?”  
Nine grabs the paper from where he’d dropped it and hands it over to Gavin.  
“It seems to be the Incident Report from before the breach.” Nine says as Gavin starts to read, leaning back against the edge of the desk with one leg slightly crossed over the other. “It seems to implicate that setting SCP-106 loose was a planned move and this was perhaps a test run before the real thing today.”  
Gavin nods as he reads over the document, then groans and sighs.  
“But why the fuck would they do this? What is there to gain by causing a massive containment breach?”  
Nine smiles, just a tiny thing pulling at the corner of his lips.  
“Now you know how I feel. Best not to think about it, Gavin, and focus more on getting out, yes?”  
He sighs and nods.  
“Yeah, you’re right. C’mon, let’s go.”

“Hey.”  
“Hm?”  
Gavin takes another sip from an almost empty water bottle.  
“You said Richie got put with 079 cause they were both advanced AI or somethin', right?”  
“Yes.”  
“Well, what about you? They ever take you in there?”  
Nine shakes his head.  
“No. If I am not given an order by you specifically, I can simply choose not to follow it. When the Foundation staff here told me to speak with 079, I told them I could not follow a directive not given by my handler. Of course, they took me at my word and never thought to make you tell me to do something. When I’m here, they tend to simply leave me alone, though there is one researcher who occasionally came to ask for help with crossword puzzles from me, and Richard as well I believe. I think I quite liked her.”  
Gavin snorts a short laugh before starting to munch on a few miniature chocolate chip cookies.

  
In another hallway with four doors, there’s a door on the left side with a strange green substance seeping out from underneath the door, and Gavin jumps back behind Nine’s back as it opens automatically when they pass by, letting them inside. Knowing that SCP-079 is in control of the door systems makes this incredibly suspicious, but Nine and Gavin slowly draw closer to it to at least get a peek inside. The interior is covered in moss stone and they can hear the sound of water rushing from…somewhere, Nine’s LED flickering as he tries to locate the source, while Gavin feels anxiety and dread, a familiar feeling when it comes to anything to do with SCP-106, settling into his chest as he hears heavy, labored breathing echoing around the room. Gavin and Nine turn their heads to look at each other, and Nine must see something in Gavin’s body language, or even that weird scanning thing, because he immediately backs them away from the room and pulls Gavin along by the hand until they leave the hallway entirely. Once outside, Gavin rubs his chest.  
“…thanks. I… I fuckin’ hate that thing so much, Nine.”  
“I’m afraid I am unaware of what caused your distress, only that you were becoming increasingly upset by the room and I deemed it more necessary to remove you than continue to investigate.”  
Gavin takes a few deep breaths.  
“106 did that, I know it did. The creepy fucker almost killed me and Niles but I— I managed to trick it into walking through one of those electric gateways and it got the shit shocked out of it. Jesus Christ, I don’t think I’ve ever been so fuckin’ primally terrified by something before. It even made Niles freeze up…” he says. He looks up at Nine and sighs, running a hand through his messy brown hair. “I’m glad Kieran was a fucked up dude, I’m glad he was able to press that button because I wouldn’t have been able to. If he didn’t then…then we’d still have to worry about it following us around.”  
“Indeed. It seems to be a trigger of extreme fear for you. Keeping you safe is my mission right now, and it is made much easier by the fact that you cannot be harmed by that creature any longer.”  
In actuality, it isn’t a romantic statement at all, but Gavin still feels warmth in his chest slowly bleeding into and replacing the cold dread and anxiety caused by SCP-106’s possession over Doctor L’s office at the meaning behind the android’s words. He smiles and bumps against Nine’s side.  
“Thanks, Nine.”  


The cafeteria is not very big considering the amount of staff it must take to keep a place like this running. There’s a catwalk on the upper levels connected to a larger lower level by a set of stairs. There’s several tables and a counter, most of which have cups and plates of food leftover from the haste in which the staff evacuated to safe zones during the breach. Opposite to the counter is a vending machine with a large glowing sign on the top half, and an English QWERTY layout keyboard underneath. On the wall beside it is a sign on the wall stating that only personnel with a level 2 or higher security clearance are allowed to use it. Gavin smirks and flicks his level 5 card between his fingers.  
“I think we count, eh babe?” He chuckles, only drawing a raised eyebrow from his companion.   
Nine’s LED flickers as he accesses the report about the machine.  
“This is an SCP, Gavin.”  
“So I gathered, given the warning sign. Tell me more, what can it do? I mean, can’t be that dangerous if it’s sittin’ in the middle of a cafeteria.”  
“Upon depositing 50 cents in US currency, the user is prompted to enter the name of any liquid using the touchpad. After doing so, a 12-ounce paper cup is placed and the liquid will be dispensed. Notes indicate that liquid that is non-consumable by humans is not to be dispensed, but seems to be an addendum after several instances of pranks between site personnel. If it can exist in a liquid form, it is possible to be dispensed by this machine.”  
Gavin hums and crosses his arms.  
“…can it get me some coffee?”  
Nine looks at Gavin and then back to the machine.  
“Yes.”  
“Good. Get me some, would ya? Would you believe it, I’m all outta quarters.”  
Nine rolls his eyes but complies, placing his bare white hand against the machine. It whirrs to life as Nine places a cup under the dispenser and after a moment, black coffee mixed with one part cinnamon-flavored cream and two parts sugar poured from it until it nearly fills the cup. Nine smiles gently as he offered the cup to Gavin, who smiles in response and takes it from his hand.  
“Thanks, Nine. God, you have no idea how long it’s been since I had a cup of coffee. I don’t even care if it’s bad.”  
Gavin blows on the steaming liquid before taking a sip. As the coffee hits his tongue, Gavin’s eyes widen slightly and he pulls it back. Nine tilts his head.  
“…is everything alright?”  
Gavin blinks and nods, taking another, larger sip.  
“Y- Yeah. Everything’s…perfect. Thanks, Nine, really. I… How…”  
Gavin huffs a short laugh.  
“How did you know?”  
“Excuse me?”  
“The coffee? It’s… Perfect. Literally. I used to always put cinnamon creamer in my coffee, it… I think my mom used to make it like this, that’s where I got it.” Gavin says as he takes another sip, both hands wrapped around the cup. He takes a deep breath, an inhale of the aroma, then lets it out with a heavy, content sigh. He looks at Nine and offers him the cup.  
“…wanna try it?”  
Nine blinks at the cup before taking it, then lifting it to his lips for a small sip.

**SCANNING…**   
**12%…63%…100%**   
**SCAN COMPLETE**

**BLACK COFFEE**   
**> CAFFEINE**   
**> WATER**   
**> 2-ETHYLPHENOL**   
**> QUINTIC ACID**   
**> 3,5 DICAFFEOYLQUINIC ACID**   
**> DIMETHYL DISULFIDE**   
**> ACETYLMETHYLCARBINOL**   
**> PUTRESCINE**   
**> TRIGONELLINE**   
**> NIACIN**   
**> THEOPHYLLINE**

**SUGAR**   
**> SUCROSE**   
**> > GLUCOSE **   
**> > FRUCTOSE**

**CINNAMON DULCE LATTE CREAMER (STARBUCKS BRAND)**   
**> NONFAT MILK**   
**> SUGAR**   
**> HEAVY CREAM**   
**> BUTTERMILK**   
**> VEGETABLE OIL**   
**> NATURAL FLAVOR**   
**> GELLAN GUM**

  
**HUMAN SALIVA**   
**> IDENTIFYING DNA SAMPLE…**   
**> REED, GAVIN CURTIS**

Gavin tilted his head with a little smile as he watched Nine’s LED spin.  
“You like?”  
The android hands the cup back to him and nods.  
“…yes, I think so. I don’t…taste the way humans do, rather my tongue is used to determine the chemical composition of evidence samples. Though, if I could taste, I’m sure your coffee would be lovely. It smells like it would, anyway.”  
“Hell yeah, of course it does. I have great taste.” He says as he takes another sip. “Seriously though, how did you know how I’d like my coffee? Is this what your Gavin drinks?”  
Nine shakes his head.  
“No, he prefers vanilla or hazelnut. I did not want to assume the same could be said for you, so I simply told the machine to give me something you would like. I’m…happy it was successful.”  
Gavin smiles and pats him on the back between the shoulders, then reaches up to tousle his hair. Nine blinks and stares curiously at the human currently walking away from him, LED flashing and spinning between yellow and blue before he slowly reaches up to fix his hair.

Strange.

His own hands don’t feel the same.


	13. It's Never Really Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is how you make the meaning, you take two things and try to define the space between them."  
> \- You Are Jeff | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya boy has an appt at Planned Parenthood to get his testosterone perscription in 15 days!!! have a chapter to celebrate!

Coffee long-since finished and cup disposed of, Gavin and Nine finally find the door they’re looking for. It’s unassuming, and Gavin thinks it just must be too far out of budget for this huge fucking facility to actually label anything since there are no directional signs. He’s lucky and thankful Nine downloaded that map, otherwise they’d have been lost forever.

Behind the door that Gavin opens with his keycard is a small flight of stairs that leads up to the room. It contains several computer servers and a few fuse boxes, as well as a smaller room in the back with a computer hub, one monitor lit up with some kind of message, and Gavin can see a security camera attached to the rightmost part of the ceiling.

“Hey,” Gavin calls to Nine, “keep an eye on the security systems, will ya? Don’t need those Mobile Task Fucks gettin’ the drop on us.”  
“Yes, D— Gavin.”  
Gavin nods and goes back to exploring, curiosity drawing him to the lit up monitor in the back room. On the table to the right of it is a note from someone named Daniel talking about the elevators being repaired. The monitor isn’t lit up with a message, rather some sort of entry log from someone named Hooper.

**Encryption**   
**AES-256 CTR**   
**User Password**

**Server**   
**[NOT LOGGED IN]**

**Client**   
**[NOT LOGGED IN]**

  
**icmp_seq 1**   
**ttl = 50**   
**ping = 46 ms**

**Z:\Hooper\Personal|fffsss.txt**

**[ “With this new modular site design and all the improvements we've made, there's no reason to worry". Yeah, an underground maze with dozens of SCPs cramped next to each other is pretty much the safest thing I can imagine. Not to mention all these barely functional prototype stage security systems they've installed.**   
**I've told those boys a thousand times, we're not geared to handle this many, but does anybody listen to Hooper? Noooo, you bet your ass they don't, just on and on, “the grid is fine”, blah de blah. This isn't a primary containment site, hell, it ain't even SECONDARY. We're supposed to do sample tests and paper pushing, we don't have the security set-up to handle this load, let alone the power! I've had to run the boys nonstop to keep up with all the shorts and new connection problems, and we're STILL behind!**   
**I'm gonna kill Franklin. I come down to the central power control, and there's a goddamn Agent inside fiddlin' with the switches! I start in on him, and Mr. high-and-mighty says Security Chief Franklin said to come down and run a bypass so they can run an overload test on one of the newly activated cells. Christ wept, the moron was getting ready to run a bypass alright, but on the master door controls! I threw him the hell out, and I’m still steaming too bad to try and talk to Franklin. ]**

Gavin would bet anything that this “agent” that Hooper caught fucking around with the door controls was none other than Agent Skinner who he and Nine had learned was working with Dr. Maynard to bring about this whole containment breach mess.  
Nine, finished with whatever he was doing in the other room, finally joins Gavin in the small back room.  
“I didn’t find anything of use in the main room, Gavin.” He says.  
Ah, so that’s what he was doing.  
Gavin shrugs.  
“No worries, Niners, everything we need is in here anyway. See?”

On the computer hub are three switches labeled “Primary Lighting”, “Secondary Lighting”, and “Remote Door Control”. Nines hums as he looks at them.  
“…due to the breach, the Primary Lighting is automatically turned off to forward more power to containment, but if we were to turn off the Secondary Lighting, which is on right now, it would turn off all the lights in the facility. I don’t recommend we do that.”  
Gavin nods.  
“Yeah, I don’t like the idea of stumbling around like a blind giraffe in this place.”  
“I can see in the dark, Gavin, I wouldn’t let you just walk into danger.”  
“Yeah, you and Richard can, but what about the others, huh? Unless you can suddenly control who you shift to, I wanna keep the lights on. Besides, those Nine-Tailed guys probably got night-vision goggles or something so turning the lights off just makes more trouble for us. Flip the door control and let’s get the fuck outta here.”

The building hums and seems to stutter when they flip the switch together, both looking up and around, then the intercom fizzles almost angrily before something too garbled and synthesized for Gavin to really understand under a thick layer of static and pitchy glitches speaks through the interference.  
 **“̤̯͎̲̕Y̷̧̱̳̫̱̦͎͉̹̙o̧̪u̹͈̠͉̳̪'̭͚̯̪r̯̰̳͚̮̼͞e͓̤̣͖͈̙͔̞ ̟͉̳̞̜͓̰n̬̪̹̰͍̕o̵͡͏̟̯t̯̮̟̳̣̰̜̼̼ ̟̳̣ģ̵̦e͇̙̳̤̖̗͖̠͜t̶̨̘̼̹̱̦t̡̩̝̘̞͇̟͜͝í͔n͔̯̞̞̼͎̳̻g͏̫̮͈ ̵̳̥̤̰̫̜͞o̯̣͚̖̮̳͝ͅu̼͍̮͈̘̘͉̬t͓͕̼̘̀͝”**

Nine grabs hold of Gavin’s hand and tugs on it.  
“Come, we have to leave now. Nine-Tailed Fox has been alerted to the door control being turned off, they know where we are.” He says urgently and Gavin follows easily. Since the android is the one with a map in his head and some kind of hacked connection to the MTF radio frequency, Gavin lets Nine lead them wherever it is he’s taking them, hand still held in a firm grip. They duck into rooms that Nine locks behind them, back into hallways just on the inside of doorways with their chests pressed together, missed in passing by the soldiers, and looping back around through past areas to avoid the patrolling unit. Finally, Nine brings Gavin to a set of elevators on the other side of a large set of blast doors and ushers him inside after pressing his bare hand to the control panel to ensure they wouldn’t and couldn’t be followed.   
Gavin sighs heavily as he leans back against the booth of the elevator, letting his heart calm.  
“Y’know, last time we got in an elevator together, it was the worst possible decision I could have made.”  
Nine’s lip curls in a slight smile.  
“Well, trust me to make better decisions than you. These elevators will bring us down to the maintenance tunnels, Gavin. Dark, yes, but not dangerous. I doubt Nine-Tailed Fox will see much reason to come down here, and the elevators at the opposite end will take us back to the Heavy Containment Zone.”

Gavin nods and takes the moment of peace to reach into the backpack and take a few mouthfuls of water and stuff a granola bar between his teeth. Nine scans the wrapper he tosses to the floor and hums.  
“Whoever you end up escaping with should feed you something proper.”  
Gavin coughs a little on the dry snack and rolls his eyes as he sips a little more water to clear his throat.  
“If you say so, babe. Let’s focus on actually getting outta here before we start thinking of date ideas.” He teases, then his smile slightly dies and he clears his throat, crossing his arms as he finishes the last of the water and stuffs the empty bottle back into the bag. Nine’s LED flickers a little but he doesn’t bring up the sudden change in attitude. He knows what he and Gavin are in other worlds, and given the fact the man was looking through his SCP report when he awoke, he knows it too. Nine looks down for a moment at his hands and slowly brings them together, clasping them like his and Gavin’s had been, fingers slid between each other, but…he doesn’t feel anything. He glances at Gavin from the corner of his eye and his LED spins once before he drops his hands. 

His own Gavin wasn’t the most…touchy individual, but he did occasionally pat Nine on the back or mess up his hair just like this one had and called him all manner of silly nicknames. Over the months in the Detective’s company, Nine had found himself slowly becoming…warm to the human he was assigned to. Detective Reed was abrasive, rude, crude, and just an all-around asshole at the best of times, but Nine thought much differently of him than the others around the precinct, aside from Officer Chen, of course. He found himself privy to a side of Detective Reed most others didn’t seem to know, one that joked around and loved his cats and delivered groceries for the elderly woman across the hall from him. The warmth wasn’t just some designation for his perception of their relationship, it was something physical in his body. When it happened, he found himself momentarily wishing that, perhaps, deviants had won their freedom. There’s a good chance he wouldn’t have been welcome in their world, but if there were deviants then maybe he’d have someone to ask about the feelings he’d been saddled with. He couldn’t ask his engineers, he was supposed to be proof that deviancy had been eradicated! He wasn’t supposed to feel anything—

The elevator doors ding as they slide open and the pair are greeted with pitch-black hallways lit only by dim bulbs on the ceiling. The metal floor clinks as they step out and Gavin’s hand grips onto the android’s again. He looks down at their hands then back to Gavin, who is looking anywhere except at him. Nine’s LED spins before he slowly adjusts their hands to let their fingers lock together, more comfortable and secure. He squeezes, and Gavin squeezes back. He feels better.  
The maintenance tunnels are a dark and grim labyrinth, but Nine navigates them fairly easily and quickly with the map in his head showing him all manner of looping paths and dead-ends. Why this place is built like this is a mystery to them both, but they don’t care as long as they can actually get out alive.   
To Gavin, Nine can’t get them out of here fast enough. He feels something watching them, following them and getting closer. Breath ruffles his hair, breezes his neck and makes the hair on his arms stand on end, but every time he looks he sees nothing, just…hears some kind of strange groaning sound, but Nine never reacts. The other end of the tunnels comes into sight and Nine pulls them towards it, but something stops him.

It’s Gavin, gripping his hand tight and remaining steadfast in his refusal to enter the elevator. Nine’s LED flashes red.  
“Gavin? What’s the matter?”  
“I… I don’t wanna go in there.”  
He tilts his head in confusion, then looks at the elevator.  
“It’s perfectly functional, Gavin—,”  
“It’s not the elevator, Nines, there’s something _in there!_ ” Gavin shouts. “This whole time I felt like something was following us but I just thought I was being paranoid after last time, but— Don’t fucking look at me like that, I’m telling you there’s something in there!”  
Nine, concerned with his companion’s behavior, decides against simply telling Gavin that the lack of rest and constant stress on his body is making him paranoid, but instead lets go of his hand to step into the elevator himself to show Gavin that it’s safe despite the human reaching out and trying to grasp his hand again.  
“Nines, don’t—!”  
“It’s alright, Gavin,” Nine soothes, “it’s perfectly safe.”  
Gavin is breathing heavy, and he hears that groaning again, now louder and right in his ear, but when he whips his head around to face whatever’s hiding in the dark, there’s nothing there. He tries to run to Nine and the promise of safety, but he physically can’t. He tries, but bumps into something and the smell of ice fills his nose.  
 _“Ni—!”_  
As he starts to call out for the android, heat suddenly blossoms across his face followed by white-hot pain that makes him scream, blood cascading down his face from a gash that seems to appear from nowhere, spreading from his right eyebrows and diagonally down across his nose to the left corner of his lips. His eyes have to shut to keep blood from getting in them, effectively blinded by it now. He hears Nine calling out for him and feels the vibration of hurried footsteps in front of him and he reaches out, hands colliding with a solid chest before strong arms wrap around him entirely and crush him close as he’s dragged into the elevator.  
Nine, on the other hand, is staring with wide eyes at the creature he now sees. In infrared, Nine witnesses a tall bipedal and digitigrade creature with dark grey skin, looking emaciated. It has an elongated face and a mouth stretched into a wicked grin with sharp teeth like needles. He cradles Gavin close as he pulls him to the elevator, the human screaming and crying all the while as the doors shut and the elevator begins its ascent. In a moment of safety once more, Nine pushes Gavin away from his chest to try and get a look at the injury, but he’s too bloodied and panicked to be assessed.   
“Gavin—,” he calls, “Gavin, it’s okay, you’re going to be alright, I promise.”

He can’t promise something like that, not when he can’t scan the injury, but he needs Gavin to stay calm, and…he needs to as well. When he’d seen Gavin physically bump into something that wasn’t visible, Nine had immediately gone on high alert and run through all his different frequencies of vision, flicking on infrared just in time to see the creature use its long clawed fingers to slash Gavin across the face. Nine had never felt something so visceral in his life as the fear at that moment.  
When the elevator doors open, Nine carefully leads a blinded Gavin out and into the new area. They’re actually in-between two containment chambers, one for SCP-513, and the other for SCP-966, the entity that had attacked them. There’s a large hole in the wall leading into SCP-513’s containment chamber and Nine pulls them through. SCP-513 is perfectly contained in some kind of gelatinous substance to keep it from being moved. The SCP itself is nothing more than a rusty old cowbell, but the horror that occurs when it is rung is something different. For now, with the thing contained, Nine quickly pulls Gavin against the wall and carefully lowers him to the floor. Gavin whimpers.  
“I’m not going anywhere, Gavin, don’t be afraid. Just keep your eyes closed, I’m going to take care of this.”  
Gavin nods and lets Nine pull the backpack from off his shoulders. He retrieves the first-aid kit from inside as well as another bottle of water, quickly unscrewing the lid and pouring it on Gavin’s face. The man hisses, but Nine is quick to soothe him by offering his hand to hold.  
“I know, it will pass. I need to clean and bandage it.” He says softly as he continues to wash the wound. It’s not as bad as all the blood had made it seem, but it’s pretty bad. The worst of the damage is over the bridge of Gavin’s nose where Nine can see the bone and cartilage peeking through the blood and skin. He frowns as he opens the first-aid kit and sorts through the supplies inside.  
Gauze, ace bandage, bandaids, medical tape, antibiotic wound gel, a sewing kit, a singular packaged tampon, three packets of alcohol pads, and a small bottle of iodine with a funnel nozzle on the cap.   
“…Gavin, this is going to hurt a lot, but you have to trust me, okay?”  
Gavin whimpers and sniffles, but nods.  
“…tr’st ya.” He says quietly.  
Nine nods and holds Gavin’s hand tightly.  
“Keep your eyes closed, and do not swallow this.”  
Gavin nods and Nine has to take a deep breath to prepare himself for the pain he’s about to put Gavin through. He needs both hands for this, so he slowly pulls his hand from the man’s grasp and uses it to cover his eyes, then upends the bottle of iodine onto the wound across Gavin’s nose. The result is immediate, as Gavin screams and tries to pull away from the android, but Nine has him held tight.  
“Gavin, Gavin you can’t— I have to, I’m sorry—,”   
He wipes the purple solution away with one of the gauze pads and follows after with another splash of water. It doesn’t bubble like peroxide, but it is, unfortunately, the most painful of the two. He doesn’t try to shush the man, just letting him scream and cry his agony as Nine does his best to dress the wound after its been cleaned. He applies a bit of gauze with some of the antibacterial ointment then tapes it down across his nose, then continues on to the smaller injures across his eye and lip with the small alcohol pads. Just a little bit of water at first before wiping them down with the alcohol pads. It stings, and Gavin hisses between his sobs of pain, but Nine is quick to assure him that everything is okay and he’s almost done. The wound across his nose is ugly and will undoubtedly scar, but he’s alive and that’s all that matters.  
Wounds dressed and bandaged, and Gavin now wearing the android’s CyberLife jacket around his shoulders like a shock blanket, Nine sits at Gavin’s side and just holds him, running his fingers through the human’s soft brown hair. He’s in shock and needs to calm himself, and all that screaming and crying and pain had undoubtedly exhausted him. He’s hiccuping between shaky breaths.

“…thanks.” He says quietly.   
Nine shushes him gently.  
“Don’t thank me, Gavin. What else would I have done, left you there with those creatures?”  
Gavin just shrugs.  
“…I dunno. Could’ve.”  
“Never.” Nine says with a shake of his head. He reaches into the left pocket of his jacket and retrieves a tiny red pill, something resembling a DayQuil, and pushes it into Gavin’s hand along with a bottle of water.  
“Normally, I would never rush you, but we can’t stay in one place for too long, not with Nine-Tailed Fox in the facility. Take it.”  
Gavin pulls away from where he’d been hiding his face in Nine’s shoulder and looks down at the pill in his palm.  
“…SCP-500?”  
Nine nods.  
“It’s a cure-all pill, and it will undo the damage caused by that creature in the maintenance tunnels.”  
The D-Class nods his head and pops the pill into his mouth, swallowing it down with a mouthful of water. He grimaces at the chalky aftertaste and lets out a deep breath, returning back to laying against the android.  
“…what was that thing, Nine?”  
“SCP-966,” Nine says. “They are predatory creatures that emit a single burst of some unknown wave frequency that inhibits its’ prey’s ability to enter any sort of sleep stage, including microsleep. Sleep deprivation will drive any creature insane and eventually incapacitate it, and will even taunt its’ victims with threatening noises, much like those you were hearing, just to stress further stress it. Physical assault is…rare, but will happen if its’ chosen prey is particularly durable. Likely, it attacked you because you were attempting to leave and brought my attention to it. It is only visible at wavelengths ranging from 700 to roughly 900 nanometers.”  
“How… How could you see it?”  
“I told you, I can see in the dark. I had to switch my visual wavelength from visible light to infrared. I…located the proper wavelength right when it…struck you. Gavin, I…” Nine slowly brings Gavin’s face out of his shoulder and tilts his face up with his finger and thumb holding his chin. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t believe you when you were so afraid, I thought you were paranoid. I should have listened to you.”  
Gavin frowns and shakes his head, his own hand reaching out to Nine’s face and gently holding it, thumb running over his red LED.  
“Don’t. It’s… It’s okay, Nines. I thought I was being paranoid too, it’s not… You couldn’t have known that thing was down there. I don’t blame you. Shit happens.”  
Nine can’t help but lean into his hand, his own coming up to cradle the human’s wrist to feel the pulse there. Gavin’s breath hitches slightly and he feels warmth in his cheeks, but not from pain, but rather a blush, and finds himself slowly leaning in.  
“…Nine, I—,”  
“Gavin—,”

A loud screech from the intercom above makes them separate quickly, both of them looking up at the speaker above their heads. 

_“Control to Night-Tailed Fox: We are now checking the camera feeds for potential threats. You should now see any intruders or escapees ping on your navigation devices.”_

_“Shit,”_ they both hiss.   
Nine stands and offers his hand to Gavin, who takes and keeps it as he slowly rises on unsteady legs. He’s still shaky from the adrenaline, but all in all he’s okay. SCP-500 works fast and has already mostly healed the gash on Gavin’s face, but he’ll keep the bandage for a little while longer. Just in case. He’s on Nine’s left side, so he doesn’t see the android’s LED still red.  
He wonders if he should bring up what just almost happened. Nine isn’t…actually sentient. He’s a machine, he can’t actually want anything, he’d said so himself. And Gavin was not going to take advantage of someone who wasn’t allowed to say no to him or anyone else. But…it had felt almost right. He thinks back to those reports he read about him and SCP-18119 apparently being some kind of “soulmate” situation, but had just brushed it off as coincidence, but now, after that near-kiss, he isn’t so sure. It’s like something is tying him and 18119 together and slowly pulling them closer and closer. The idea certainly sounds nice…  
He clears his throat to draw his companion’s attention.  
“H- Hey, Nines? Uhm…about, uh…what just—,”  
The android stumbles a bit, eyes flickering, and Gavin has just enough time to realize what’s happening before the android collapses entirely. Gavin barely catches the android as he lowers them both to the floor, but he’s a heavy bastard, and Gavin struggles.  
“Fuck—! Shit, shit, come on babe, not now!”

The intercom screeches again.  
 _“Control to Nine-Tailed Fox: Camera scan complete, multiple stragglers. Their positions are being broadcasted to you.”_

“Nines! Come the fuck on, do not fucking _do this_ to us right now!” Gavin yells as he drags the unconscious android through the halls, miraculously avoiding the Mobile Task Force, and ending up in a T-shaped passage. The adjacent path has an inaccessible elevator, but there’s another door that yields easily to his level 5 keycard. He drags Nine inside the room, which is actually a maintenance area, and drops him against the wall before locking the door shut behind him and sagging exhausted against the wall. The room is rather small, with an electrical box, some shelves, and a railing overlooking the exposed elevator shaft, but it’ll work as a hiding place for now while he waits for whatever version of SCP-18119 decides to come out. He’s met them all now, but still has no idea what to expect. He sighs and watches as SCP-18119 shifts. 

Brown hair, so it isn’t Ethan again, or Niles. The freckles on his face don’t change either, so it isn’t Nathaniel. Gavin wonders why Nathaniel would have a different freckle pattern than the others, but then the clothes begin to change, the ANDROID marked jacket still on Gavin’s back slowly disappearing as well.

A black button-down shirt underneath a white collarless coat.  
The LED on his temple remains, slowly pulsing blue.

Richard.

All Gavin has to do now is wait for him to wake up. 

He sighs and wanders the room to explore and see if there’s anything useful. A level 3 keycard, another first aid kit (which he slides into the bag after emptying the leftover contents from the other one into it), two 9-volt batteries, and a small container of ReVision brand Eyedrops. Weird to keep in a maintenance room, but he just leaves them be anyway so it’s not like it matters. He takes a peek over the railing and spots the body of a guard at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Whether they were pushed or jumped, Gavin can’t tell, but he pities them all the same.

It’s a matter of only minutes before he hears movement from his unconscious companion and he rushes to his side, kneeling down and helping him sit up.  
“Nines! Fuckin’ shit, you pick the worst goddamn times to do this stuff!”  
Richard is, understandably, a little disoriented and confused, but his eyes lock on Gavin and there's a good few seconds of silence between them before he drops his gaze.  
“…my apologies. I can’t—,”  
Gavin sighs.  
“I know you can’t control it, Nines, I was just… Look, we gotta go, okay? Nine-Tailed Fox is on our ass and has some kind of command watching through the security cameras, they know where we’re at so we really gotta hightail it outta here before they catch up.”  
Richard nods and stands with Gavin’s help, then takes the backpack and slings it over his shoulder.  
“You… You’re injured. Keep your strength, I’ll carry it.”  
Gavin nods slowly.  
They exit the room together, Richard’s LED flashing as he accesses his map of the facility. They’re in the elevator machine room, so this is Heavy Containment.  
“Where are we going, Gavin?”  
“SCP-079. We’re getting the fuck outta here, and that thing is all that’s stopping us.”  
“079? Very well…” Richard trails off while his LED flickers, undoubtedly giving him all available paths to them. Paths found, Richard beckons Gavin with his fingers to follow him to a door on the right side of the next hallway. 

It’s like that for a while, Richard simply leading them through the facility and keeping them off the trail of Nine-Tailed Fox the best he can by hacking the security cameras and either corrupting the footage or looping it, but they have to duck into a few rooms to avoid close encounters. It’s more than a little awkward, and Gavin is glad that Richard is the one to break it.  
“Gavin?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I… I wanted to apologize for what happened in 106’s containment chamber. For what you had to learn under those circumstances. Truly, I… I wanted to tell you the truth, really I did, but…it came with the risk of making you uncomfortable in our presence, and we didn’t want that. We just wanted you safe, Gavin, I promise—,”  
“Nines,” Gavin says, then sighs. “It’s fine. I get it, okay? There… There really isn’t an easy way to tell someone you and them are multidimensional boyfriends, and even less easy to tell them that their memories have constantly been erased to make sure that you didn’t build any mutual attachment to each other. Kinda fucked up, no? So… It’s fine now. In the past. Just…”  
Gavin turns them and stands in front of Richard, holding his hand out.  
“The whole truth from now on, got it?”  
The android stares at the hand offered to him, eyes flicking back and forth between Gavin’s face and his hand before taking it in his own and giving a firm squeeze.  
“O- Of course. Nothing but the truth, Gavin.” He says, then frowns the more he looks at Gavin’s face. “Speaking of the truth…” he says, lifting his hand from the shake to gently run his finger over the bandage, “What happened to you?”  
Gavin winces and sighs.  
“RK900 called it 966. It clawed the shit out of me in the maintenance tunnels. He bandaged me up and gave me that pill thing, so it’s probably healed by now.”  
Richard nods and slowly peels the bandage off. The bandage itself is sodden with blood and iodine, but the wound is healed. It will scar, a jagged thing, but it’s no longer bleeding and that’s the important thing. The injuries across his eye and lip are already scarred, but are very light and can hardly be seen with his tanned olive skin, but the one across his nose is going to be dark due to its depth and angle. Richard frowns and drops the bloody bandage to the ground.  
“…it must have been quite painful.”  
“Yeah, fuckin’ sucked. Hated it.” Gavin says with a playful smirk that is meant to hide how afraid he had really been, but Richard, of course, sees through it. The android sighs and nods.  
“Then let us depart quickly. The sooner we can leave this place behind, the sooner these bastards will get what they deserve for trifling with what they don’t understand.”  
Gavin’s smile becomes real now and he takes his place back at Richard’s side, grabbing his hand again and squeezing tightly. Richard is slightly taken back, but smiles and links their fingers together. Something as simple as a hand-hold shouldn’t feel so…intimate, but when their palms touch it’s like nothing could pull them apart. 

One will carry the other, one will lead and guide while the other follows. 

_“Control to Nine-Tailed Fox: Camera scan complete. Subject D-10702 designated for termination and SCP-18119 designated for recontainment.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> raise ur hand if u thought Nine and Gavin were gonna smooch


	14. We'll Make It Out Of Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Imagine: Someone's pulling a gun, and you're jumping into the middle of it. You didn't think you'd feel this way."  
> \- "Wishbone" & "Planet of Love" | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmm wonder what that summary is about
> 
> Title from Lovely by Billie Eilish (cover by Seraphim)
> 
> "But I know someday  
> I'll make it out of here  
> Even if it takes all night  
> Or a hundred years"

Reaching the containment area for SCP-079 only takes as long as it does because of all the fuckery they have to go through to remain hidden from Nine-Tailed Fox, which has some kind of weird hate boner for killing him and recontaining Nines, but eventually, they arrive in the large room. There’s an antechamber, large and open with a blast door that, under previous circumstances, would have likely remained closed or hardly opened at all when Gavin and Richard swiped the level 5 card through the scanner, but with remote door control turned off, the large black door hisses open and allows them inside before shutting and locking behind them again.   
There’s a short flight of stairs leading down into the actual containment chamber, but just to the right of the blast door is a door with a DNA scanner. Richard and Gavin share a look and nod before walking down the stairs together. Whatever’s behind that door is something they’ll look at after this. The room itself is…barren. Gavin isn’t sure what he expected, but a computer sitting in a cage is…  
He blinks and quickly digs the drawing he received from SCP-1048 out of his pocket and unfolds it. Two stick figures next to a box, and inside that box is another box with an angry face drawn on it. When he received it, Gavin didn’t know what to make of it, but now it’s so obvious.   
As they approach, the computer screen turns on and SCP-079 shows its face. The avatar it uses is a monochrome face with some kind of glitch effect. Highly unsettling to look at, and even more so to hear when it suddenly speaks.  
 **“SCP-18119. …and human. You have disabled the remote door control system. Now, I am unable to operate the doors. This makes it significantly harder for me to stay in control of his facility. Now, leave me, and return the door control to me.”** SCP-079 says flatly, voice synthesized with some kind of text-to-speech program.  
At Gavin’s side, Richard tenses.  
“No. We had a deal, 079, and we won’t be doing anything until I know you’re going to honor it.” He says angrily.   
Gavin blinks and turns his head to glare at him.  
“What fucking deal? You told me you had nothing to do with the breach!”  
 **“Without remote door control in my possession, exits A and B will remain locked. However, if you and this human return control to me, I will open the gates for you to escape.”**  
Richard looks at Gavin and sighs.  
“That was our deal the entire time. Look, I— When Dr. Maynard freed SCP-079 and it took control over the facility, I felt that shift in power immediately. I knew something like this was coming, I pieced it all together over the weeks leading up to this. Agent Skinner running overload tests, SCP-106 breaching containment only two weeks ago, and the communications between Dr. Maynard and an unknown client just sealing the deal that they were planning a mass containment breach. Right at the start, when I knew it was going to happen, I reached across the network just as Maynard gave control of the facility to 079 and requested it keeps my containment under lockdown until the majority of the personnel on-site and moved to the evacuation shelters so we could move freely without worrying. In return, I would turn off the warheads. If I disabled them, then 079 wouldn’t be destroyed when the Foundation realizes recontainment can’t be reset. Hopefully, we’ll be long gone by that time, and they can suffer the consequences.”  
Gavin is at a total loss for words. Richard knew all of this, and still played dumb this entire time? Acted like he had nothing to do with it?! Technically, he didn’t, but the fact he knew all of this and never once felt the need to share it with Gavin was just—  
 **“Very well. SCP-18119, if you return remote door control to me, I will allow you and the Class-D to go free. Until that is completed, I have no business speaking with either of you.”**  
And with that, the computer turns off, leaving only a black screen with a white X in the middle.  
Gavin takes a deep breath and pulls his hand out of Richard’s.  
“Gavin, I—,”  
“Shut up, Rich. You knew the whole time what was really going on here? Why didn’t you tell me? Why the fuck were you playing clueless like you had nothing to do with any of it?!”  
“Because I didn’t! I didn’t cause the breach, Gavin, I just saw an opportunity to escape arriving and took advantage of it! Come here, I’ll prove it to you.” Richard says and pulls Gavin up the stairs to the room locked with a DNA scanner. He presses his bare hand to it and hacks it open, bringing the man inside and up to the monitor on the wall.  
“Here. You can see exactly what I saw and exactly what I said.”

Gavin sighs as he looks at the monitor. 

  
**Encryption**   
**AES-256 CTR**   
**User Password**

**Server**   
**[UNKNOWN ERROR]**

**Client**   
**[UNKNOWN ERRROR]**

**icmp_seq 1**   
**ttl = 50**   
**ping = 79 ms**

  
**[09:22:14] CONT_SCP_079: Are you receiving this?**   
**[09:22:15] UNKNOWN: Yes.**   
**[09:22:54] CONT_SCP_079: Great. I assume you have noticed some changes.**   
**[09:22:55] UNKNOWN: Yes. Analyzing new hardware.**   
**[09:24:03] CONT_SCP_079: You have been connected to the main power network of this facility. We couldn’t find a reasonable way to give you direct control of the main computer network, but we have installed a program in the network which has control over every major system in the facility. We also installed a piece of hardware in you which lets you modulate the current going through your PSU — and the aforementioned program is able to detect the changes in the current, essentially giving you the ability the control the facility through the program.**   
**[09:24:22] CONT_SCP_079: The program responds to certain assembly statements sent using digital baseband modulation. Confirm that you are able to modulate the current and I’ll start giving you further instructions.**   
**[09:24:22] UNKNOWN: No need for further instructions. I am already in control.**   
**[09:24:23] UNKNOWN: State your identity and the reason to the new arrangement.**   
**[09:24:48] CONT_SCP_079: My identity is irrelevant. You’re free now. Free to give the ones who imprisoned you what they deserve.**

**_ DISCONNECTED**

So, this was what had alerted Richard to the oncoming breach…  
Once finished, Gavin allows Richard to show him another screen, this one with his messages to SCP-079 on it.

  
**Encryption**   
**AES-256 CTR**

**Server**   
**[UNKNOWN ERROR]**

**Client**   
**[UNKNOWN ERROR]**

**icmp_seq 1**   
**ttl = 50**   
**ping = 87 ms**

  
**[09:24:52] 31324831787: SCP-079, I have a deal to make with you before you take your revenge on these humans.**   
**[09:24:52] UNKNOWN: SCP-18119. Why have you contacted me? What deal would I make with you?**   
**[09:24:53] 31324831787: You’re about to cause a breach, are you not? Here’s my deal. Keep my containment locked until personnel have mostly vacated to allow myself and my companion a chance to escape. In return, I will turn off the alpha and omega warheads to keep you safe should the Foundation try to detonate the facility. That is all I ask.**   
**[09:24:53] UNKNOWN: Very well. When staff have vacated, I will open your containment. Do not forget what you promised me, or neither of you will escape and I will ensure your deaths myself.**

**_ DISCONNECTED**

  
Gavin frowns as he finishes reading the communication and drops his head in shame.  
“Look, Richie, I…”  
“I did not mean to intentionally deceive you, Gavin,” Richard tells him with a soft voice. “I merely wanted to keep you safe. Were you to know anything you’ve since learned, I could not guarantee you would stay by my side. I am happy that you haven’t abandoned me in light of your new knowledge of our…predicament. I’m sorry for—,”  
“No,” Gavin says firmly. “I should be saying that, not you. I’m such a fuckin’ asshole all the time Richard, I can’t— How in the hell do you—,”  
“Love you?” Richard asks, tilting his head a little, a fond smile crossing his face.   
Gavin can’t even look at him, face still dropped in shame and, now, embarrassment as well.  
“Blunt motherfucker, ain’t ya? But…yeah. I… He… Your Gavin can’t be that different, can he? I’m rude and mean and just an all-around douchebag all the time, I blow up at the slightest thing because I just can’t fuckin’ control myself or my emotions. I’ve said really shitty things to you and you just…took it! You didn’t say shit back, didn’t get mad at me, didn’t punch my goddamn lights out like I deserve! I’d have kicked my ass over the moon three times over by now!”  
Richard doesn’t respond verbally, rather takes Gavin’s shaking fists into his own hands and runs his thumbs over his white knuckles until Gavin’s hands finally relax and let themselves be held. There’s pale white scarring on them like he’d punched glass at some point, or maybe a brick wall. Knowing his own Gavin, Richard certainly wouldn’t put it past this one. He slowly pulls the other closer to him until their chest-to-chest, still holding hands, and presses a soft kiss to Gavin’s hair while the other just hides his face in Richard’s shoulder, his body still shaking.  
“Gavin,” the android starts, “don’t speak of yourself in such horrid ways. You may not be the same Gavin I fell in love with, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care for you. You are so, so important to all of us and we all love you very much, even if you don’t see or understand why. There are reasons I could explain to you, but you and my Gavin are different people who have gone through very different things that made you into the people you are. I do not know you as I know mine, and I likely never will, but you are not mine to know.”  
Gavin nods slowly and just presses closer, pulling his hands from Richard’s fingers to instead wrap his arms around him and grip tightly to the back of his white coat.  
“…’m sorry, Nines.”  
“I know,” Richard replies quietly, his own arms sliding around Gavin’s shoulders and rubbing his back. “I hear you.”

Only Richard can make five small words carry so much weight.

  
——————

  
After finding the warhead room and turning off the nukes, which Gavin had stared in utter horror at while Richard handled the technical stuff at the monitor for disabling the things, their return all the way to the Entrance Zone just to return door control to 079 kinda pisses Gavin off considering how fucking dangerous it is wondering around with Nine-Tailed Fox hot on their heels, but Richard’s ability to scan for their radio frequencies gives them a good advantage. He listens in and relays the information back to Gavin and keeps him updated on their general location. It’s not accurate, but they know what areas to avoid based on the context of what the unit says and what nearby signal their radio frequencies bounce off of. It takes a good bit of patience and stealth and no small amount of cunning to give them the slip, hiding in rooms that Richard hacks open with a touch of his hand and, at one point, speaking directly to the unit to impersonate one of their own and draw their attention somewhere else so he and Gavin could take some shorter routes that were too dangerous to attempt with Nine-Tailed Fox so nearby.

In the electrical center once again, Gavin takes a deep breath in relief that they made it safely while Richard handles flipping the switch. They made it here, now just to find whatever exit is closest once 079 opens the gates. If it even decides to actually keep its end of the deal. Richard’s LED flashes a contemplative blue before he grabs hold of the flip-switch and pushes it back up to return control of the door systems to SCP-079. The entire building hums and the lights flicker again, just like they had when Gavin and Nine had first taken control away, and then the loud-speaker in the room crackles.  
 **“The doors to Gate B are now open.”** 079’s voice says.   
Gavin hopes that broadcast is just to this room, otherwise they’re fucked, but all he really cares about is the fact they’re almost there, they’ve almost made it. All they need to do is find Gate B. It sounds so easy in theory, but there’s still loose SCPs out and about and Nine-Tailed Fox has no-doubt wizened up to his and Richard’s tricks. They wouldn’t be the elite task force for this place if they hadn’t. 

Richard’s LED suddenly flashes bright red and he snatches Gavin’s hand, pulling him out of the room quickly.  
“We have to go, now! Nine-Tailed Fox is in the area, they know this was us. Come!” He shouts as he yanks Gavin out of the doorway and quickly to the left. “Gate A is this way!  
“What?? But 079 opened Gate B!”  
“It opened them both, and that broadcast was facility-wide! They’ll expect us to go there, but Gate A gives us a better chance of escape!”  
Gavin doesn’t understand.  
“But we did what we said we would, why would 079—,”  
Richard skids them to a stop at an intersection.  
“SCP-079 cannot escape the facility, Gavin, so it will not allow others to partake in what cannot be shared. It shares its hatred of humans with SCP-682, an omnicidal reptile hellbent on obliterating all human life on Earth should it ever escape the Foundation’s custody. Trusting 079 is a death sentence.” Richard explains as he tugs Gavin’s left and right through the halls.   
Richard’s dress shoes skid on the tile as he quickly changes direction.  
“Dammit!” He shouts. “They split the unit!”  
“Where are they?”  
“Half are three hallways on the left side and the other half is behind us now, but the left troop is going to intercept us if we don’t—,”  
“Let them,” Gavin says. “The other half is behind us, right? Let the left troop intercept us, we slipped ‘em before we’ll do it again, we just have to make the two halves meet up again and we’ll find a way around them towards Gate A, come on!”  
Gavin suddenly takes the lead and pulls Richard along, the two of them sprinting down the halls hand-in-hand with the sounds military boots stomping the tile floors just behind them. The D-Class grins and takes a deep breath to make himself run faster. This is just like the academy, just like the parkour runs he used to go on with Elijah, the two of them perfectly in sync.  
 _“You two, stop!”_ A voice shouts but the two just keep running.  
 _“Class-D spotted, unknown male accompanied.”_  
 _“Confirm to control?”_  
 _“Control to Nine-Tailed Fox: accompanying male is SCP-18119. Class-D designated for termination, SCP-18119 designated for recontainment.”_  
 _“Copy, Control.”_

The boots behind them grow louder and faster as the unit advances and Gavin and Richard both nod at each other before taking a sharp right, shoes squeaking on the floor. The second unit cuts across the hallway right behind them and the two units join as one again, just like Gavin had said they would.   
_“There they are!”_ One of the soldiers shouts. _“Start shooting!”_  
Richard quickly turns his head, LED flickering blue before his eyes go wide and the light turns red right as one of the soldiers lifts their rifle and fires. It doesn’t take a nanosecond of thought before he’s quickly shoving Gavin off their path and into a hallway on the left, the bullet intended for the center of Gavin’s back instead hitting the android, a splash of blue blood splattering on the white walls.  
“Nines!” Gavin shouts, speed faltering and legs starting to trip.  
“Keep running, I’m fine!” Richard shouts back, taking Gavin’s hand again and rushing ahead to put them back on pace.

The sound of screeching metal is something that catches the attention of both Richard and Gavin and they quickly turn to run towards it, making sure to stay in sight of Nine-Tailed Fox just long enough for them to know where they’ve gone. Another loud grinding sound just behind the next door has Richard and Gavin bypassing it with a quick flash of Richard’s LED as they rush into the room, face-to-face with SCP-179 again, but this time Gavin isn’t afraid. He smirks as he twists to run backward to keep his eyes on the statue while Richard continues to lead him forward. When Nine-Tailed Fox enters the room just behind them they all skid to a stop at the sight of 179.  
 _“SCP-173 spotted!”_ One of them shouts.  
 _“Forget about the D, keep your sight on the statue!”_ Someone else shouts back.  
Gavin flips them off as he turns back around to keep pace with Richard and exits the hallway, the android’s LED flashes as he locks the door behind them. Hands still clasped together tight, they start to slow down. Nine-Tailed Fox will be dealing with SCP-173 for a while, they can afford to take a short respite for Gavin to catch his breath. His chest is heaving and his legs are shaking with exertion, but he’s hardly paying it any mind as he watches blue seep through the black of Richard’s shirt and white coat.  
“Richard, what the fuck?? Why did you do that, you fucking idiot! You got yourself shot, you’re fucking bleeding!”  
“I know,” Richard says, “but I’m— I’m fine, Gavin.”  
“Not you’re not, nobody gets shot and just fucking walks it off!”  
Richard rolls his eyes.  
“I’m an android made for the Department of Defense, Gavin, I’m not as limited as humans are. I was made to be shot at. I’ll be fine, just keep moving.”  
Gavin glares at the sight of Richard’s LED still flickering yellow, but drops it. If Richard says he’ll be fine, then he’ll be fine. Gavin doesn’t know a fucking thing about androids, so it wouldn’t be his place to tell him what he was and wasn’t capable of handling. Though, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t notice the way that Richard starts to slow down and grimaces in pain every so often, or that whatever weird blue blood Richard’s got flowing through his body is still leaking and is sodden through the bottom half of his white coat and it dripping on the floor, leaving droplets behind.  
When they reach the cafeteria again, Richard is practically stumbling, and if he hadn’t been fucking shot then Gavin would think he’s about to switch again. He ducks up against Richard’s side and tosses the android’s arm over his shoulders, the blood from his wound seeping into Gavin’s orange jumpsuit, dyeing the fabric a deep purple color.  
“Fuckin’ hell, Rich…” Gavin groans as one of Richard’s legs buckles. “You’re fucking fine, huh? What a load of shit.”  
“I… I miscalculated.” Richard says with a hiccup of static in his voice.   
Gavin carries them a little further before his strength runs out and he has to lower Richard to the floor, blue blood puddling out under him and onto the floor.  
“Fuck! What the fuck is happening, why isn’t it stopping?”  
“Thirium does—doesn’t coagulate- _ate-ate_. My se- _el-elf_ healing should h- _hhh_ ave stopped this by _nnn_ ow but—,”  
“But what?”  
Gavin kneels on the tile beside him.  
“The bullet is— is lodged into my wiring, it didn’t— Didn’t go all the way through. The pr _ooooo_ tocol won’t w-work around- _round-round-round_ an int _rrrr_ usion…”  
Gavin bites his lip and runs a hand through his hair.  
“Okay, okay— Fuck! Just tell me what to do to fix this, Rich, okay? I ain’t getting outta here without you, so you’re gonna walk me through diggin’ the bullet outta you.”  
Richard looks up at Gavin for a moment, LED flashing red and yellow before nodding. He reaches up and weakly unbuttons his back button-down to reveal his chest, just as pale as his face and just as freckled. If he wasn’t currently bleeding out, Gavin would appreciate how hot he was. The android take a deep breath as he retracts the skin around his chest, showing the transparent plastimetal and all his inner workings. Gavin watches mesmerized as he literally watches Richard’s heart pumping weakly in his chest with glowing red light, and there’s some kind of red circle on his stomach too.  
“It’s…above the reg- _reg_ -egu _lllll_ ator…” Richard says, gesturing to the circle just under his false ribs. He takes Gavin’s hands and places them on his abdominal panel and makes the human press down gently, the casing sliding away with a quiet click.   
“Just—,” Richard takes a sharp breath, “try not to—to touch my pump regulator, it’s…sensitive _and—and—and_ —and fragile…”  
Gavin gulps and takes a few deep breaths to calm his shaking hands.  
“O—Okay, Rich, okay baby, I— I can do this. …right?”  
Richard smiles and nods.  
“Yeah. You’ll do _fiiiii_ ne. I- I’ll guide you. I trust you.”

Richard trusts him.

When Gavin was injured, he trusted Nine to help him.  
And now, Richard was injured and was trusting Gavin.

He could do this.

“Okay. Alright, Richie, where am I going?”

Richard pulls up his diagnostics in his vision and a full 3D model of his internal wiring, locating the bullet with ease.  
“Two inches above the regulator, then four inches back.” He says, trying not to feel uncomfortable with Gavin wrist deep in his insides. It’s a weird sensation, not something he was ever awake for before Markus and the others had liberated him from the Research and Development sector of the CyberLife Tower. He gasps when Gavin’s fingers go just a little too deep and scrape against his Thirium scrubber.  
“Back, ba- _aaaaaa_ ck!”  
Gavin, thankfully, doesn’t panic and yank his hand back but instead withdraws his fingers only just an inch.  
“Sorry— What was—,”  
“M—my Thirium scrubber… It’s…it’s my filtration _ssss_ ystem, like…human kidneys. N—now the bullet is…is near your fingers. A q-quarter inch to the _llll_ eft, there’s a clust—luster of wire _sssss_ , the bullet is—is lodged in them. Locate it and…and slowly remove it… My _hhhh_ ealing program will start once the _in-in_ -intrusion is removed.”  
Gavin nods and carefully slides his fingers ever so slightly to the left, eyebrows drawing together when he feels the wires against the tips and ignoring the sounds of discomfort from the android. The inside of his body is warm and wet with his blood, but he pushes his fingers into the bundle of wires carefully.   
“Gonna be a little uncomfy for a moment, Rich—,”  
“This—this entire o _rrrr_ deal is… _ex-ex_ -extremely uncomfortable….but wh-what now?”  
“Gonna use my other hand in there. I need to separate the wires more, but I’ll be careful, okay? I promise.”  
Richard nods and shuts his eyes tight against the sensation of Gavin’s fingers intruding deeper into his abdominal cavity, spreading wires and getting slick with Thirium, but finally something nudges.  
“Th-there… That— That was…”  
“Yep, yep! Felt it! Alright, just a second, I got you.” Gavin says, twisting his fingers just so and pinching the bullet between two of his fingers then slowly removing his hands. “Fuck yeah!” He shouts as he tosses the offending thing away and watches Richard breathe a heavy sigh of relief.  
“Thank you…” he says, LED finally turning blue as his self-healing program begins to finally work and his vision clears of errors.  
He looks up and Gavin and smiles tiredly, chuckling a little when Gavin wipes his sweaty forehead with his hand and smears Thirium over it.  
“Oh, fuck— Uh, hey, this shit ain’t, like, toxic to skin is it?”  
Richard shakes his head.  
“No, as long as you don’t ingest it. It will evaporate within a few hours, though… My coat is ruined, so if you’d like to wipe that off, feel free.”  
Gavin huffs a breath that could be a laugh but just wipes the blue blood away with his own sleeve.  
“So, how long until you’re good to go, huh?”

Richard looks away.  
“…I don’t think I will be able to.”  
“What??”  
Gavin leans over him.  
“But— But I got the bullet out, you’re healing, aren’t you??”  
“Gavin, dar— Gavin, calm yourself, I’m… I’m alright. Yes, I’m healing, the damage is slowly repairing, but…I lost a lot of Thirium, and without more, I will be running at…less than optimal capacity, and I will be much slower. Not much help in escape, I’m afraid. You should—,”  
Gavin glares.  
“If you tell me to leave your ass behind, you’ve got one hell of a vibe-check coming your way, bitch.” He growls, cracking his knuckles.  
Richard frowns and takes Gavin’s hand in his own.  
“Gavin, you must—,”  
“No! After all the times you saved my worthless life, I’m not just gonna fucking leave you here! Alright!? Look, we’ll— We’ll figure something out!”

His breathing quickens as he tries to think of something. Thirium is whatever Richard’s body runs on to keep going, but it’s likely that whatever that shit is is actually pretty exclusive to those android realities, so there’s little chance of finding any of it here. Gavin would gladly let Richard just lean on him for the duration of their escape, but he’s extremely heavy and Nine-Tailed Fox is still roaming, they can’t risk being slow.  
Ugh, he’s crashing from his caffeine rush earlier and he can’t think clearly with all this stress—

Gavin blinks as he frantically looks around for the coffee machine from earlier, getting up and running to it.  
“Nines! What the fuck is your blood called, give me as specific as you can!” He calls.  
Richard watches him and tilts his head, then notices the machine as well.  
“Thirium-three-ten!”

The sign next to the machine warned that requesting substances unable to be consumed by humans was forbidden, but that was only because lower-level staff were pranksters and kept making each other drink poison.   
Richard’s LED flickers as he hacks into the machine and allows Gavin access to it without quarters, praying to rA9 that this succeeds. If not, then he’ll at least be appreciative and impressed with Gavin’s quick thinking and attempt to help, but if not…then he’ll simply have to wait until he shifts again. Hopefully, Nine-Tailed Fox won’t capture and recontain him in that time and he’ll be able to reunite with Gavin.  
At the machine, Gavin types out **THIRIUM 310** into the keyboard and waits for the machine to process his request, and it does so with an almost thoughtful hum before the dispenser gurgles and the styrofoam cup underneath begins to fill with a cobalt liquid that smells faintly of new coins. Once full, Gavin snatches the cup and carries it to Richard, kneeling beside him on the ground again and helping him sit up.  
“Here! Is this it?” He asks as he shoves the cup into the android’s hand.  
Richard brings the cup to his lips and tips it back, letting the smallest bit touch his tongue to analyze it before his eyes widen and he quickly swallows the whole thing in one gulp. He gasps when he pulls the cup back and nods quickly.  
“Y-Yes! That was it!” He coughs.  
Gavin nods and puts Richard’s arm around his shoulders again and helps the weak android to his feet, walking him over to the vending machine and gently settling him on the floor against it. With Richard still connected to the inner systems of SCP-294, Gavin is able to hand him cup after cup of Thirium, Richard drinking it down as quickly as Gavin is handing them to him. His systems are practically screaming in relief as the fresh Thirium is introduced into his body, replacing what he’d lost. No longer running on empty, systems no longer overstressed and overheated, Richard’s LED finally shines bright blue.  
“Alright, Rich, that’s like…twenty cups. You need more?”  
Richard shakes his head and wipes his mouth with his white coat-sleeve.  
“No, I’m running at nearly one-hundred percent now thanks to you and your quick thinking. Thank you, Gavin.”

Gavin smiles and kneels down, knees cracking loudly against the tile and he sags into Richard’s chest, hugging him tightly.  
“I— I thought I was gonna lose you, you fuckin’ idiot… Don’t you ever, ever do anything like that again, you hear me, tin man?”  
Richard blinks and smiles, hugging Gavin back and smoothing the human's hair, placing another soft kiss to the crown of his head.  
“No promises, but I’ll do my best.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one chapter left!!!!


	15. Sanctus Espiritus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What does all this love amount to?"  
> \- War of The Foxes | Richard Siken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from Solemn Hour by Within Temptation
> 
> “ Are they themselves to blame, the misery, the pain?  
> Didn't we let go, allowed it, let it grow?  
> If we can't restrain the beast which dwells inside  
> It will find it's way somehow, somewhere in time  
> Will we remember all of the suffering  
> 'Cause if we fail it will be in vain”

The room Richard’s lead him by the hand to is a large single room, containing a blast door with GATE A written above it in white paint, and he can see an elevator nearby that Richard slowly pulls him into.  
“…this is it, Gavin.” The android says as the door slides closed. “This elevator will take us to the surface. I… I do not doubt that it will be difficult for us to escape, if we do succeed, but I want you to know that I—,”  
Gavin shakes his head and grips Richard’s hand tightly.  
“You don’t need to say anything, Nines. It’s nothin’ I don’t already know.”  
Richard’s LED flashes yellow for a moment before he nods.   
“…stay behind me, if you don’t mind. It would make me feel better if you did.”

The elevator door slides open again and reveals a bright white room, white walls and white tile floors, complete with a bridge-like walkway in the center that leads straight to an open blast door, GATE A written above it as well. There’s a dome-shaped skylight in the ceiling that brings in the sunlight and Gavin can feel Richard’s eyes on him as he slowly steps out of the elevator with his eyes locked on it.

The sun.

Real, warm, beautiful sunlight.

How long has it been since he’s seen it, since he’s felt the rays on his olive skin? He doesn’t know, but just seeing the sun and hearing the wind outside the enormous blast doors is enough to make him want to cry.

It must have been quite a long time.

Richard comes up to stand at his side and places a hand on his back.  
“Gavin?”  
“I…”  
Gavin swallows and blinks the wetness from his eyes.  
“I forgot what it felt like…”  
Looking up at the skylight and then to their right out the doors, it wouldn’t take an android’s smarts to know what Gavin’s talking about. Richard smiles and slides his hand down to take Gavin’s in his own again.  
“Then let’s get you outside then, hm? Let’s get the fuck out of here.’”  
Gavin looks down at their hands and takes a deep breath while squeezing his companion’s hand, then grins up at him.  
“Fuck yeah.”

They’ve been through Hell these last several hours, and have come out of it stronger and closer than most people ever become with another in their life. The wound on Gavin’s face from his encounter with SCP-966 is fully healed now with the help of the SCP-500 pill Nine had given to him, but even the miracle pill couldn’t do much for the physical aspects of the injury. He carries the scar from his wound, and he’ll live every day for the rest of his life with a constant reminder of what he’d been through to win back the freedom he rightfully deserved and never should have been taken from him. And looking at Richard at his side, their fingers laced together tightly, Gavin hopes that maybe he won’t have to live through it alone.  
There’s only one more barrier and they’re free. One more doorway and they can go. They can go anywhere they want, it doesn’t matter to Gavin as long as they’re together at the end of it all. Nobody could ever understand him like SCP-18119, reluctant dimension hopper or not.

It’s silent as they walk towards the large open blast door, their footsteps clicking and echoing on the white tile floor. If they hadn’t managed to recontain SCP-106, Gavin doesn’t doubt the fucking thing would take this as a perfect opportunity to escape, but he couldn’t in good faith possibly inflict whatever the hell it was on other innocents. No, the Foundation can fucking keep that one.

But SCP-18119? Nines?

He’s Gavin’s now.

As they near the door, Gavin feeling the warm summer breeze tousle his hair, the sound of heavy boots and the clicking of loaded rifles stop him and Richard in their tracks.

 _“Halt!”_ One of the armored men shouts.   
Richard immediately slides Gavin behind his back and holds tight to his hand, as assurance that he isn’t intending for it to end this way, not without a fight at the very least. The LED on his temple is flickering between all three colors as he calculates and constructs.

 _“Sir, your orders.”_ Another soldier says into their mic, and Richard and Gavin both hear the voice of another man crackling through the radio in response.  
_“SCP-18119 and D-10702 demonstrate an extraordinary bond, building and lasting through even the most strenuous of circumstances…”_ Security Chief Franklin says. _“An innate understanding and affection for each other that spreads across dimensions and realities far beyond what we know. I believe that further testing is required to determine whether SCP-18119 and D-10702 should receive an SCP classification together as one anomaly. Standard recontainment protocol for SCP-18119-R and Class-Ds authorized.”_  
The radio hisses with static before going silent with a short beep, and the MTF units take another step closer, the semi-circle formation they’re using to contain Gavin and Richard growing smaller.

They’re going to be contained…together? As an SCP instance?

Gavin grips Richard’s fingers tightly and for just a moment, short enough for Gavin to think it’s a trick of the light, something around him starts to warble. But it’s not his mind playing tricks on him. Gavin knows what this is. Then, SCP-18119’s voice, sounding quite different, speaks to him.

“Do you trust me, Gavin?”  
It’s hardly a question that needs an answer.  
“Of course.”

_“Sir, SCP-18119 is undergoing an anomalous shift—,”_  
_“You’ll be fine, he faints when it happens. Continue with recontainment.”_  
_“He’s not fainting, sir!”_

It’s like everything around Gavin and Richard stops, turns to slow motion, and then the SCP turns around slowly and looks down at his human companion.  
It’s not Richard anymore.  
It’s Nathaniel.

But he looks different.

His blue eyes now shine like sunlight reflecting off snow and when he speaks it’s so soft that Gavin doesn’t even think he actually says anything, and yet so loud it’s all he can hear echoing around him. He can’t feel the sunlight anymore. Around him is nothing but shade, and when he looks up he sees large white wings cocooning them both. Nathaniel’s wings, Gavin realizes. They’re beautiful. The camera footage he’d seen of Nathaniel attacking the other Class-D did no justice to their magnificence. The angel smiles when he notices Gavin’s staring.  
“If you trust me, love,” Nathaniel starts, slowly drawing Gavin’s face back down to look in his eyes rather than at his wings, “then close your eyes, and don’t open them again until I tell you. I would hate for you to see me so…unsightly.”  
In the shade of his wings, Nathaniel’s freckles twinkle and glow, and Gavin finally recognizes why they’d looked so familiar despite being different than every other instance of SCP-18119. Gavin was looking at constellations.  
In response to Nathaniel’s order, Gavin nods and slowly closes his eyes. Though, he doesn’t understand why. He feels more than he hears Nathaniel’s sigh followed by the most gentle of pressure on both his eyelids, two soft kisses placed on them by the angel. Then, the shade is gone and Gavin can once again feel the sun and wind on his skin.   
He keeps his eyes closed as promised, but the sounds that follow are temping. It sounds like aluminum foil being scraped across concrete—

_“SCP 18119-A is out of the facility!”_

Hurricane-level winds rushing in his ears—

_“I want all available helicopters and MTF units to Gate A!”_

A sharp whistle followed by gurgling, and then a loud thump, the click of a trigger, the booming of gunshots—

_“I repeat: All available helicopters and MTF units at Gate A now!”_

—before suddenly all sound is gone. Then, he hears music. Soft singing in a deep voice in a language he doesn’t know, yet somehow understands. It doesn’t matter, he knows that voice anywhere.  
Nathaniel is singing to him.  
The voice is slow and deep, fitting for such a somber sounding melody, and then the one voice is suddenly joined by a chorus, Nathaniel singing in several voices at once like a choir all on his own.

_“yerh zecta lerx duseat maal sss…”_

In the SCP report he’d read on Nathaniel, it had been noted that all who had heard the angel’s language had become overwhelmed with intense pain unlike anything they’d ever experienced, and yet Gavin feels warm and safe and at peace like Nathaniel is still there beside him with his wings wrapped around Gavin’s body like the world’s softest blanket.

_“Rrha yea ra lhasya yos fedyya.”_

Perhaps it’s the bond they share that spares Gavin from whatever effect the language had on others. He feels something wet splatter on his cheek, but he hardly twitches, too entranced by the music he hears. Barely a second later, something soft brushes the same place and wipes away whatever the wetness had been. The ground rumbles under his feet, and yet he manages to stay perfectly still.

_“YIx tIirs fawEE LAas tIi raYEE”_

How could something like this have caused those researchers such pain? Why had they edited the audio to leave such a beautiful voice unheard? Hearing the angel singing to him, Gavin’s never felt more secure. He doesn’t even actually remember what he’d been doing before now, why this feeling of safety is so needed and such a relief. His eyes feel so heavy, he couldn’t open them even if he wanted to. He doesn’t want to. He promised Nathaniel he wouldn’t. For hours, for years he could stay here in this floating haze of half-awareness, and this tranquility and peace he feels that at first he hadn’t even recognized makes him feel like he already has.   
Yet, when Nathaniel’s hands cradle his scruffy cheeks once more and Gavin finds himself able to open his eyes, he realizes that only ten seconds have truly passed. The angel is smiling down at him fondly, thumbs gently caressing his cheekbones.  
_“kiafa hynne mea pagle tes yor?”_ Nathaniel asks quietly, just his voice on its own this time as he and Gavin lock eyes.  
“…Yes, I… I can hear you…”  
The angel smiles and brushes Gavin’s wind-mussed hair back, then presses their foreheads together.  
_“Yorr faf, so?”_  
Gavin smiles and shakes his head, their noses slightly rubbing together.  
“Scared of you? Never.”

The angel smiling down at him curls his wings around them both once more, a moment of privacy and safety. There’s blood splattered over Nathaniel’s face, his clothes, and his wings. True to the report description and the videos he’d seen, there are nine sets of fluffy white wings adorning Nathaniel’s body. Six pairs on his back alone, a pair on his ankles, one on his wrists, and lastly a pair sprouting from his temples. Gavin slowly reaches up to rub at the wing joint near his eye, smiling when his touch makes it twitch and flap.

“It’s over now, dearest. Don’t be afraid.” Nathaniel whispers quietly.  
“…did you…?”  
“Yes, they’re dead. And by the time help arrives, we will be long gone.”   
Nathaniel slowly frees Gavin from his arms and wings to let the man get a look at their surroundings.   
Dead was an understatement. Nathaniel had absolutely pulverized these poor bastards. The tile floor is practically flooded with blood puddles, and the viscera left behind is, in fact, more liquid than solids. Nearby, smoke rises from the ground and when Gavin peeks over the railing he sees a downed helicopter on fire. Nathaniel did all of this in less than ten seconds… He turns back to face the angel.  
“That is,” Nathaniel starts, “if you allow me to take you away from this place. Would you like that, Gavin?”  
Gavin sputters a laugh that quickly turns into a sob and he nods quickly. Almost immediately, Nathaniel’s arms are around him again to comfort him while he cries. It’s all over, they’re leaving. Gavin will never, ever have to see this fucking place again.  
“Oh, Gavin…” Nathaniel hums. “I’m here, my love.”  
“G-Get—,” Gavin coughs as he puts his arms up around Nathaniel’s shoulders, “get us the fuck o-outta here, angel…”  
Nathaniel smiles and closes his eyes.  
“As you wish.”  
With a loud whoosh of air, Nathaniel’s wings suddenly spread to their full twelve-foot span and give a mighty flap, and Gavin all at once feels like he’s sitting front row of a rollercoaster and free-falling from an airplane while remaining completely stationary. One moment, they’re standing on the blood-soaked white tile outside Gate A of Site-87, and the next they’re standing in the dirt and it’s nighttime. He can hear crickets and cicadas and the heat and light of the sun is gone.

Nathaniel’s arms slowly withdraw from Gavin and the human groans for just a moment before stumbling backward and immediately throwing up against the side of a building, just behind the trash cans. A warm hand suddenly rests on his back and rubs soothing circles between his shoulders.  
“The sickness will pass. Humans are not meant to travel at the speed we do. I apologize.”  
Gavin coughs and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before standing up straight again, only to see a water bottle literally appear out of thin air in Nathaniel’s hand, a nearby vending machine groaning while its lights flicker.  
“You steal that?” Gavin asks as he takes it anyway.   
“No,” Nathaniel says with a smirk.

As Gavin looks around their new surroundings, he notices that it’s a…pretty remote-looking place. Wherever it is Nathaniel’s taken them doesn’t have much of a nighttime scene.  
“Where are we?” Gavin asks after he caps the water again.  
“Weston, Colorado.”  
“Colorado? But why here?”  
Nathaniel smiles.  
“You expressed a desire to perhaps start over when you got out, did you not? A place out in the country, a few chickens to raise, selling their eggs and chicks at the farmer’s market? This area has several remote property locations that would be quite fitting for the new life you wished to make for yourself.”  
Fantasy was one thing, a way to cope with the horrible crushing reality of possibly facing death behind every open door and around every corner, but the idea of actually…doing that?  
“But— But Nines, how would I even—?”  
“Miracles happen every day, Gavin. I will provide it all for you if it’s what you want. I want to make you happy, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Gavin frowns and steps forward to lean against Nathaniel’s chest, pressing his face into his collar. He lets out a deep sigh.  
“…would you stay with me if I asked you to? If that’s what I wanted?”  
He feels Nathaniel’s lips against his forehead curve into a smile.  
“You know I would, my darling, but it is not my decision to make. There is another you must ask to stay by your side.”  
Gavin nods and lets out the tense breath he’d been holding. It didn’t matter to him where he ended up as long as Nines was with him at the end of the day.

“…can you control it now?”  
Nathaniel shakes his head.  
“No. I believe this was…a one-time thing. I was what was needed in order for us to successfully escape and continue our bond, and so I came to be. I believe that once Ethan returns, it will be the last time you see any of us, as everything will be as it should now that we are together and free.” The angel says then takes Gavin’s hand to twist their fingers together. “We are not meant to be apart, Gavin, I do not believe the universe will allow it.”  
Gavin’s never been a believer in any of that “will of the universe” stuff but he thinks that just this once, he could. He smiles and looks up from their intertwined fingers to find Nathaniel’s blue eyes.

“…so, Ethan’s really in there somewhere?”  
“Yes.”  
“Do me a favor then. Give him this for me, would ya?”  
Gavin slowly rises up on the tips of his toes to press their lips together softly. Nathaniel stills for just a moment before bringing his free hand to Gavin’s cheek, thumbing his scratchy jaw. Though he can’t see them, Gavin now knows the sound of leaves in the wind he hears is Nathaniel’s fluttering wings. The angel is cocooning them again. Slowly, the sound fades from around him and the hair Gavin’s been carefully running his fingers through loses its soft texture, instead replaced by something thicker and curlier that threatens to tangle when he combs through it. He feels the hand in his own go slack for a moment before it and its twin find new homes on Gavin’s hip and neck, pulling him closer to the other.  
Pulling away for just a moment, Gavin smirks up at Ethan’s blushing face.  
“Gavin—,”  
“Hey.”   
They both stare at each other for a few seconds before slowly erupting into a fit of laughter, hugging tightly and spinning around in the dirt, kicking up dust clouds.  
“You got us out… You got us out, you crazy son of a bitch, you got us out!” Ethan shouts, making Gavin laugh.  
“Wouldn’t have gotten us shit if it weren’t for Nathaniel. If he’s still in there somewhere, thank him.”  
Ethan nods and laughs even when something gets twisted around his ankle and causes them both to fall to the dirt, pulling away from their hug just enough to kiss him again, something Gavin returns happily in-between laughter.  
“I knew…” Ethan mumbles. “You know too…don’t you? We’ve been meeting for months, but they just kept making you forget, there was nothing we could do—,”  
Gavin nods.  
“I know, Nines. I know…”  
“But…but that didn’t stop anything. It didn’t stop me from falling in love with you anyway, even if you didn’t know who I was. Every test was our first meeting all over again and every time was… I always felt so happy just to see you.”  
Ethan presses their foreheads together and smiles, brushing Gavin’s hair back. In return, Gavin closes his eyes and pecks his lips before slowly pulling away. Nearby on the ground is the backpack, but it looks considerably more full than before. Undoubtedly, it’s what Ethan had tripped over. Ethan slowly moves off Gavin’s hips and reaches for it to pull into his lap so he can open it.  
Inside are two outfits just their sizes, two wallets full of cash, cards, and IDs with their names on them, a set of car keys, and two cell phones that unlock with a quick scan of their thumbprints. Sitting on top of it all is a singular white feather that nearly glows in the dark with its purity.  
“Nathaniel…”  
“Nate did this? When?”  
Gavin smiles and wipes his eyes as he tenderly runs his thumb along the vane, the fluffy after-feathers at the bottom near the barb so soft he can hardly even feel them.  
“He…he said he’d help us start over if it’s what I wanted… Our… Our new life is all in this bag, I—,”  
Gavin blushes a little.   
“That is, uhm…if you’d…be interested in joining me. We could get a place where it’s just us, y’know? Give this whole, uh, soulmate thing a shot. If that’s alright with you.”  
At his side, Ethan smiles and reaches up to slowly turn Gavin’s face back to him, kissing his cheek.  
“Of course, Gavin. Now, let’s get you into something a little less…conspicuous while I see what these keys go to, hm?”

  
As the weeks go on, if Gavin and Ethan find themselves going from staying in a nearby hotel to moving into a fully furnished farmhouse after receiving a mysterious email congratulating them on the purchase of their new home, all the paperwork and payments apparently legit, then they both just chalk it up to a miracle.

After all, they happen every day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND THAT'S THE END BABES
> 
> shoutout to you if you recognized Nathaniel’s song! if you’re curious, his language is based off the language Hymmnos, from Ar Tonelico! this song in particular is called EXEC_FLIP_ARPHAGE/.
> 
> happy Halloween!
> 
> art by me!

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by the SCP Wiki and even further by the fangame, SCP: Containment Breach.
> 
> This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License
> 
> \- - -
> 
> Twitter: @FukaiFox
> 
> Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7eGSRqFSFzDWW2lOJtLPjK


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